Jamie Dimon just put a price tag on U.K. political stability. The CEO of America's biggest bank told Bloomberg this week that JPMorgan would rethink its London headquarters project if Prime Minister Keir Starmer loses his job to someone hostile to banks.
The threat lands in the middle of a Labour Party crisis, with last week's local election losses prompting 90 Labour MPs to call for Starmer to step down while more than 100 backed him to stay.
Right-wing Reform UK and the left-wing Green Party both posted big gains in those elections.
JPMorgan announced a 3-million-square-foot tower in London's Canary Wharf late last year, big enough for up to 12,000 employees and expected to take six years to build, with the bank also planning to renovate its existing building on Bank Street.
Dimon said JPMorgan has already paid $10 billion in additional taxes tied to the project. At the time of the announcement, the bank flagged that the plan was contingent on a "continuing positive business environment" in the U.K.
The bank's existing London operations already pump about £7.5 billion a year into the local economy. The construction and upgrade plans were projected to add another £9.9 billion (about $13.4 billion) and create more than 7,800 jobs over six years.
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Dimon's comments doubled as a quiet political endorsement. He called Starmer a "very smart guy" and said he thinks "the world of" finance minister Rachel Reeves, before praising Starmer's push to repair U.K.-EU relations after Brexit through military and economic ties rather than reversing the divorce itself.
That's an unusually warm political read from a Wall Street CEO. Bond traders agree.
U.K. government bonds, known as gilts, sold off on Tuesday as the political headlines worsened, then rallied Wednesday morning after Starmer dug in.
A Labour leadership challenge requires 20% of the party's MPs to back a challenger, which works out to 81 names. As of Wednesday morning, the rebels are still short.
If Starmer survives this week, the London tower likely goes ahead and the gilt market settles. If he doesn't, the next prime minister inherits a bank ready to walk away from a 12,000-employee project.
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