One of the world’s most-influential financiers have given his backing to Sir Keir Starmer, who he said had given him “hope” in politics.

Larry Fink, the chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, said the Labour leader had shown “real strength” to bring the party back to the centre ground after the years under Jeremy Corbyn.

He said that he hopes Labour’s transformation is an indication that the age of populism symbolised by Donald Trump is coming to an end in politics.

The boss of BlackRock, which manages assets worth $8.5trillion (£7trn), told the Wall Street Journal: “I was in the UK and I spent time with both parties — the Conservatives and Labour party — and I’m very pleased to see how the Labour party in the UK went from an extremist party with a Marxist leader to Keir Starmer who has shown real strength as a moderate Labour party.

“That actually has given me hope that the pendulum went so far. 

“If you think about the UK — the UK was the one that started the high level populism through Brexit and then the populism here led to Donald Trump being president.

“I hope the UK - we will see what happens if Keir Starmer gets elected - but I believe that’s a measurement of hope.”

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