Varun Chandra: Starmer adviser proving ‘vital link’ for Labour in US trade talks

Chandra is known as ‘a brilliant salesman’, smoothing over friction with businesses and playing key role in trade negotiations with US

Days before his global investment summit last year, Keir Starmer was facing a crisis. DP World, the Dubai-based owner of P&O Ferries, was threatening to cancel its attendance, along with a £1bn investment in the UK, in response to public criticism of the company from the transport secretary, Louise Haigh.

So the prime minister turned to the only man in his team who had a pre-existing commercial relationship with the Emiratis – his business adviser Varun Chandra, who promptly hit the phones to his contacts in Dubai. Just 72 hours later, the prime minister and his business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had publicly disowned Haigh’s comments, and the investment was back on.