Starmer’s gaffe over Blackstone photo

Sir Keir Starmer posted a picture with the wrong business mogul when thanking Blackstone, the American private equity firm, for its multibillion-pound investment in a new data centre in Northumberland.
Days after mistakenly calling for the return of the Israeli “sausages” rather than “hostages”, Starmer found himself caught up in another gaffe, this time on social media.
The prime minister’s account on LinkedIn posted a photo of himself alongside Larry Fink, the boss of BlackRock, the asset manager, instead of Jon Gray, the president and chief operating officer of Blackstone.
The prime minister wrote: “Blackstone has announced new investment to create one the largest AI data centres in Europe, delivering jobs and wealth creation across the northeast of England.
“The number one mission of my government is to grow our economy, so hard-working British people reap the benefits. More foreign investment is a crucial part of that plan. Britain is back as a major player on the global stage. We are open for business.”
The post that included the photo of Fink and Starmer was quickly deleted and re-uploaded without an image. Starmer met Gray on Thursday at a breakfast meeting with business leaders while in New York for the United Nations general assembly.
On Wednesday, Blackstone announced a £10 billion investment in a new artificial intelligence data centre in Blyth, Northumberland. The new site will create about 4,000 jobs and will become one of Europe’s largest AI data centres. Construction on the site is due to begin next year.
Starmer isn’t the first person to mix up the similarly named American companies. Steve Schwarzman, the co-founder of Blackstone, said on CNBC in 2017: “There is a little confusion. And every time that happens I get a real chuckle.”
Schwarzman founded Blackstone in 1985 before Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, decided to set up his own asset management business. The pair are said to have agreed on the idea of having a family name with “black” in it. However, advisers warned both Schwarzman and Fink that they should avoid having business names that were too similar because “it will completely confuse people”.