King Charles beams as he arrives for glitzy funding summit occasion

King Charles looked to be in high spirits as he arrived at a glitzy dinner reception at St Paul’s Cathedral this evening – where Elton John is set to perform.

The monarch, 75, grinned as he shook hands with esteemed guests at the event, being held following the Government’s International Investment Summit.

He donned a navy suit, which was teamed with a patterned blue and white tie, adorned by a matching handkerchief.

The King smiled as he chatted with international business leaders during tonight’s gathering, along with other VIPs, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The dinner will be prepared by three Michelin-starred chef, Clare Smyth. 

Sir Lucian Grainge, the chair of Universal Music Group, told the Guardian: ‘He [Elton John] is an ambassador. He wanted to be here.’

Elton is close with the royal family – particularly Prince Harry and Meghan Markle-  performing at their wedding reception at St George’s Hall, in Windsor Castle and socialising with them.

He was also a close friend of Princess Diana and released a Candle In The Wind after her death. 

Harry and Meghan revealed in 2022 that their son, Archie, loves Elton’s 1974 hit ‘Bennie and the Jets’ and even sings along whenever it is on. 

The singer is thought to have played his hit songs Tiny Dancer, Circle of Life, Your Song, and I’m Still Standing at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding. 

The Goodbye Yellow Brick Road singer also attended the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012, appearing onstage next to Queen Elizabeth, Charles and Camilla. 

This comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer kicked off a glitzy UK investment summit today telling businesses it is a ‘great moment to invest in Britain’.

The PM struck an upbeat tone as he addressed hundreds of senior figures at the Guildhall in London – hoping to drum up tens of billions of pounds for the economy.

He insisted the government was ‘stable’ after Brexit ‘circus’ and would ‘rip out bureaucracy’ and do ‘everything in my power to galvanise growth’.

But he also had a stark message about the need to be ‘tough’ on the public finances – with fears of a looming ‘tax bomb’ in the Budget.

Businesses have been warning that hiking their element of national insurance and levies on capital gains would be a ‘tax on jobs’.

There are also fears that imposing NICs on employers’ pension contributions – which could raise up to £17billion a year for the Treasury – would hammer retirement funds and hamper investment.

Sir Keir also received a stern message from former Google chief Eric Schmidt during an ‘in conversation’ event on stage. The tech guru said the UK was too full of people who were saying ‘no’ and the ‘delay is killing you’.

In his keynote speech at Guildhall, he said: ‘We’ve got our problems, of course we have, as I’ve said our public services need urgent care, our public finances need the tough love of prudence – challenges we can’t ignore. 

‘Because we know, just as every leader here knows, that those early weeks and months are precious, and no matter how many people advise you to ignore it, that you must run towards the fire to put it out, not let it spread further.’

He said it was ‘a mission-led mindset that thinks in years, not the days or hours of the news grid, needed to unlock potential’.

Sir Keir is hosting leading investors and CEOs at the inaugural International Investment Summit, where ministers hope to unveil deals worth billions for AI, life sciences and infrastructure. 

The summit was nearly overshadowed by a row over criticism of P&O Ferries that jeopardised a £1billion investment by its Dubai-based owner DP World.

The spat was only smoothed over at the weekend after Sir Keir slapped down his own Transport Secretary Louise Haigh for urging a boycott of the operator.

Mr Schmidt told the PM in a Q&A: ‘Democracies, especially something as old as this one, have so many ways in which people can say no.

‘I’d much rather – and I think the business community would much rather – have a single person who can say yes or no … and then they can move on.

‘The cost of capital and the delay is killing you, and furthermore you’re not going to achieve your 2030 energy goal, which is laudable, without fixing this.

‘You have a tactical leadership problem to achieve this and I think you can pull it off, but you have to figure out a way to get control.’

The Prime Minister replied: ‘I think this is a really big challenge, it has to be a cross-Government priority, not just within the Treasury team.’

He added that ‘we are setting up some of the structures that will do this’ and repeated that the Government’s central question would always be: ‘Does this promote growth or does it not promote growth?’

In a round of interviews this morning, Science Secretary Peter Kyle said he stands ‘absolutely ready to engage’ with Elon Musk amid suggestions the tycoon had been snubbed from an invite.

Mr Kyle suggested Mr Musk, who clashed with Sir Keir over the summer riots, was not invited to the international investment summit because ‘he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events’.

Pressed whether the Government should have invited Mr Musk, Mr Kyle told Times Radio: ‘Let me just send my very best to him on the safe landing of the booster rocket yesterday, it was a stunning achievement and I did watch slack-jawed at the staggering achievement that that represented.

‘Elon Musk has never come to any of the past investment summits that have been held under the previous government, he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events, but I stand absolutely ready to engage with him, to talk about any potential global investments he’s making – I’m not aware of any at this moment in time.’