EXCLUSIVE: Cabinet Office Hides Details of Starmer's Meeting with BlackRock CEO
Back in February, I submitted a Freedom of Information request asking for details about meetings between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.
After months of delay and a forced internal review, the Cabinet Office has now confirmed:
- Two meetings took place, including one on 21st November, 2024.
- A meeting agenda and readout exist.
- The agenda was released (after being withheld in error).
- The readout remains witheald, citing Section 35(1)(a) (policy formulation) and Section 43(2) (commercial interests).
The Cabinet Office claim that disclosing this readout would risk “a chilling effect” on policymaking, harming “the commercial interests of third parties” and undermining “value for money” in government contracts.
The problem is, we are talking about the Prime Minister of the UK meeting with the CEO of BlackRock, a firm with enormous influence over infrastructure, finance, and climate policy.
In this video breakdown, I review this response, the exemptions used to withhold the record, and expose how government departments utilise certain sections of the FOI Act to circumvent transparency and scrutiny.