Chancellor Rachel Reeves will travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week to court potential investors in UK growth projects, joining hundreds of political and economic leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps in the shadow of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Ms Reeves will join political leaders including German chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and a vice premier of the Chinese Communist Party, with the agenda likely to be set by Mr Trump’s opening gambits in office.

The incoming president had promised the imposition of tariffs on imports, and while they did not feature in the day-one commitments at his inauguration, his second term carries the threat of upending global trade and fundamentally altering America’s security commitments.

Money blog: Pound surges after Trump omission

Mr Trump will address the event remotely at the end of proceedings on Thursday, and before then the WEF will provide a platform for the first public reaction from international political leaders to his plans.

Perhaps as important for the 4,000 or so delegates is the opportunity it provides for private meetings and bilateral conversations.

The chancellor’s focus during a 36-hour visit will be on drumming up investment and reassuring potential partners about the stability of the UK economy and the viability of her plans for growth.

Those plans have been under scrutiny since the turn of the year after fluctuations in debt markets forced the cost of government borrowing up, in turn threatening the fiscal rules Ms Reeves says are central to her credibility.

While largely driven up by international factors, particularly the impact of Mr Trump’s policies, borrowing costs receded at the end of last week after better-than-expected UK inflation figures, easing the short-term political pressure.

What’s on the agenda?

Ms Reeves does not feel she has anything to apologise for following the bumpy start to 2025, but Davos offers her an opportunity to make the case publicly and privately for her plans, with the hope of securing some tangible investment commitments.

She will meet leading financiers convened by JP Morgan and its chief executive Jamie Dimon, investors including the chief executive of OTTP, a leading Canadian pension fund, and address the country strategic dialogue, a private meeting of more than 80 executives, and attend a lunch arranged by business lobby group the CBI.

She will also give a round of interviews to international media outlets in which she will stress her plans to stabilise the economy, reform public services, and begin the structural supply-side reforms she believes are fundamental to encouraging growth.

She will not be alone in seeking to leverage the unique convening power of the annual meeting to her advantage. More than 50 heads of state and as many finance ministers will be in Davos, drawn by the presence of three times as many chief executives and chairs of major companies, corporations and wealth funds.

While public sessions will be dominated by discussion of current opportunities and challenges, including the ubiquitous AI, privately the event offers the 4,000 delegates a chance to speed-date with their peers.

David Beckham and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg will lend a little celebrity to an event that remains overwhelmingly earnest and self-assured.

Now in its 54th year, the WEF has been a crucible for the principles of globalisation and the liberal economic consensus, which maintains that only open markets and cooperation can deliver profit, prosperity and social justice.

Its immodest mission, set out by founder Klaus Schwab and featuring on the merchandise handed to participants, remains “committed to improving the state of the world”.

Not on the agenda is the question of whether the annual gathering of the billionaire class – Davos’ private jet traffic is notorious- has achieved that goal.

Rachel Reeves will hold talks with some of Wall Street’s leading financiers in Davos this week, less than hours after Donald Trump’s second US presidency gets underway.

Sky News understands that the chancellor will attend a breakfast hosted by JP Morgan on Wednesday amid speculation about the threat of US tariffs being imposed on the UK as well as the prospects for a bilateral trade deal between the two countries.

Among those attending the meeting will be Filippo Gori, JP Morgan’s European chief; Richard Gnodde, who runs Goldman Sachs’s international operations; Sharon Yeshaya, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer; and Jenny Johnson, president and chief executive of Franklin Templeton.

Money latest: Soldier reveals financial benefits of the army

The talks, to be held during the annual World Economic Forum, will come amid growing concern about the impact of the chancellor’s October budget on sentiment among international investors in Britain.

Despite hailing £63bn of investment committed at a key summit, weeks before Ms Reeves’s first fiscal event, the government’s non-dom reforms have sparked fears about an exodus of wealth creators from the UK.

The chancellor will use Wednesday’s event to talk up the government’s economic agenda, even after a torrid period which saw a spike in the cost of government borrowing, sparking brief comparisons with the aftermath of the Liz Truss administration’s mini-budget in 2022.

City sources said that Alexandra Soto, Lazard’s chief operating officer; David Livingstone, Citi’s chief client officer; and Philip Freise, KKR’s co-head of European private equity would be among those also attending the meeting.

Ms Reeves will hold other meetings with bankers, foreign governments and British company chiefs during her trip to Davos.

Earlier this month, she travelled to China for the first formal financial summit between the two countries for about six years.

The Treasury has been contacted for comment, while none of the firms represented at Wednesday’s summit who were contacted by Sky News would comment.

TikTok has begun restoring service to the app in the US after Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order pausing its ban.

A law signed by President Joe Biden last April required ByteDance, TikTok‘s China-based parent company, to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner by Sunday or face a ban.

Some users reported that they lost access on Saturday night, and Americans opening the app on Sunday have been greeted with a message saying they “can’t use” TikTok “for now”.

But in a post on Truth Social ahead of his inauguration, Mr Trump said he would issue an executive order handing the app an extension to find a new owner.

“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark,” the president-elect wrote, adding the order will allow time “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security”.

He then confirmed that “there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order” and said: “Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.”

TikTok later said it had started restoring service on Sunday, thanking the president for clarifying to service providers “that they will face no penalties providing TikTok”.

It added: “It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”

Ahead of the ban coming into effect, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s plans to shut down the app a “stunt” and said actions enforcing the ban would “fall to the next administration”.

Mr Trump also indicated on Truth Social what a possible deal could look like, saying he would prefer the US “to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” with ByteDance or a new owner.

“Without US approval, there is no TikTok,” he said. “With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”

On Saturday, the president-elect told NBC News‘ Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker that TikTok would “most likely” be given a 90-day pause from the ban to find a new owner.

Under the bipartisan law on TikTok – signed by Mr Biden – the president can grant a one-time extension of 90 days under three conditions:

• There is a path to divestiture of the app

• There is “significant progress” toward executing a sale

• There are in place “the relevant binding legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension”

No legal agreements on the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner have been made public, and Mr Trump did not say on Saturday if he was aware of any recent progress toward a sale.

CNBC later reported Perplexity AI made a bid for the app’s parent company on Saturday to allow it to merge with TikTok US and create a new entity, which would also include New Capital Partners.

Read more:
‘No plans’ for UK to ban TikTok, minister says
What is the Chinese social media app RedNote?

During his first term in the White House, Mr Trump attempted to ban TikTok as well as the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat but was blocked by the courts. It was later revoked by Mr Biden.

Last year, he briefly met with the app’s chief executive Shou Zi Chew, who will attend the inauguration on Monday.

He’s expected to sit with fellow tech executives Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, a Trump transition official told NBC.