Lord Sarwar stepped down as leader of the Scottish Labour Party before taking up a seat in the House of Lords, so he could take a job within Andy Burnham’s new government.

The former Scottish Labour leader attended the meeting as part of his role as Minister of State for Trade at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, promising to represent the people of Scotland in his new role.

He took to LinkedIn to reveal the meeting with the financial services sector, writing: “I met with BlackRock and financial services leaders in Edinburgh yesterday to emphasise my commitment to the sector, to recognise the significant role they are playing and to make clear that I am determined to work with them to achieve more. Many exciting plans ahead!

“Our financial services sector is a leader in trade exports, a key driver of economic growth and helps attract inward investment.”

Scottish Financial Enterprise wrote on LinkedIn: “Continuing our recent programme of political engagement, yesterday we welcomed UK government trade minister Lord Sarwar to the SFE office for a roundtable discussion with our members focused on the opportunities and priorities for Scotland’s financial services sector.

“The conversation explored progress against Scotland’s Financial Services Growth Strategy, following the publication of our progress report at the halfway point of the five-year plan, alongside how we can continue to attract investment into Scotland and strengthen the sector’s role in trade and exports.

“It was a valuable opportunity for members to share perspectives on the strengths of Scotland’s financial services industry, the challenges facing firms, and how government and industry can work together to support continued growth and international competitiveness. Thank you to Lord Sarwar for joining us and to all of our members who contributed to the discussion.”

A spokesman for BlackRock said: “He was visiting our offices to learn more about BlackRock in Scotland and our role. Edinburgh was BlackRock’s first international office outside of the US, so has always played an important role.

“Following our expansion over the past three years (we now have approximately 1,400 people), it is our fourth largest globally. A lot of that growth we can credit to the strong concentration of talent in Edinburgh, which has allowed us to recruit well. These were some of the discussions we had.”