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When it comes to startups, the next government must resist urge to reinvent the wheel

Keir Starmer tech speech
Image credit: Keir Starmer via Flickr

If, as looks increasingly certain, Labour wins the general election this week, they will get the keys to Downing Street as well as lots of new levers to pull on the economy. The next government will inherit a mixed portfolio – inflation challenges, stalled productivity and multiple pressures on key public services – but there are twinkling lights amid this gloom. One of the most notable is the UK’s tech startup scene.

We have the third most successful startup ecosystem in the world. UK innovation has become one of the core engines of growth. Added to this, we are a global hub for sectors such as fintech, AI and climate tech – all of which look set to define the emerging global world order. And we did this all in a little over a decade.

But this doesn’t mean our startup ecosystem should be taken for granted – ignored and left to stagnate. We cannot allow startup success today to be its downfall tomorrow....