The prime minister has appointed a new investment minister to head up a "larger and better equipped" Office for Investment.
Poppy Gustafsson, the former chief executive of the British cybersecurity company Darktrace, will be a joint minister across the trade department and the Treasury.
She will be responsible for the “revamped” Office for Investment, which focuses on securing “high-value, transformative investments” for the UK.
The Office for Investment was set up in November 2020 as a joint No.10-trade department unit with a goal to “ensure the highest value investors receive the strongest possible cross government support to realise their UK investments and to make the UK the best place in the world for international investors”. It focuses on four priority areas for investment: net zero; regional growth; science and technology; and sovereign investment partnerships.
The appointment follows reports that ministers have struggled to fill the ministerial post. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser – head of the Global Counsel advisory group he co-founded with Lord Peter Mandelson and a former communications director to then-PM Tony Blair – was reportedly chancellor Rachel Reeves’s top pick for the role, but turned it down last month.
Under Gustafsson’s leadership, the unit will become a “larger and better equipped organisation to streamline how the government approaches business and investment” straddling No.10, the Department of Business and Trade and – for the first time – the Treasury.
As part of the overhaul, Gustafsson will chair a new Office for Investment Board, which will include representatives from each of the three departments. The board will provide strategic oversight of the Office for Investment and “help to mobilise the levers across government to attract investment to the UK”, according to the announcement.
The office will also have a new external advisory board of industry representatives. Its membership will be announced “in due course”, the announcement said.
Following the changes, the unit will roll out a “new, bespoke service to ensure that investors receive the strongest possible government support to navigate the planning and skills landscape”, it added.
Keir Starmer has asked all ministers to consider how their departments can work with the Office for Investment and use its services to attract investments into their sectors.
In an announcement, the prime minister said: “We’re upgrading the Office for Investment to ensure it is fit for purpose and has the capability it needs to make the UK the first choice for investment and the best place in the world to do business, which is central to our mission to drive growth and make people better off.”
Gustafsson is an “accomplished entrepreneur who brings invaluable experience to the role”, the PM said.
Gustafsson is one of a handful of ministers Starmer has appointed from outside government – including science minister Sir Patrick Vallance, government’s former chief scientific adviser, and prisons minister James Timpson, who was chief executive of the Timpson Group.
She co-founded Darktrace in 2013, with stints as chief financial officer and chief operating officer before becoming chief exec in 2016. She left the company in September.
The Office for Investment said in a press release that Darktrace saw “significant growth and global expansion” under Gustafsson’s leadership, including a listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.
“With her extensive business, cybersecurity, and financial experience, she brings a wealth of experience to the role,” it added.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Gustafsson’s private sector expertise “will be vital in ensuring we attract more valuable investment into Britain”.
“Poppy has shown she knows firsthand what it takes to start and grow a successful international business,” he said.
Gustafsson said the appointment is a “huge privilege”.
“I have first hand experience of building and scaling a business here in the UK and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share with the international investment community what I already know to be true; the UK is a great place to do business,” she added.
Accounting officer responsibilities for the Office for Investment remain with DBT.