Labour will form a government after winning the 2024 general election in a much-predicted landslide, bringing an end to 14 years in opposition.
With nearly all results now declared, Labour has won 411 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons in a torrid night for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, which won just 118.
The election has come off the back of successive years defined by macroeconomic headwinds against the backdrop of rapid technological change.
In its campaign, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party made a point to win over the tech and business community with policies promising increased investment and economic stability. But now the election is over, attention turns to governing.
How confident are founders and investors that a Labour government will ensure the tech sector remains a growth engine for the UK?
“We’ve heard time and again during the campaign how passionately Keir and the Labour team believe in getting Britain growing again,” said Dom Hallas, executive director of industry lobby group the Startup Coalition.
“Tech startups across the country stand behind them on that and we look forward to working together to do it.”
Labour’s economic plan ‘welcomed’
The Conservatives have left the new incumbents with something of a financial mountain to climb, with funding and growth largely stagnant.
Wise co-founder and Plural partner Taavet Hinrikus told UKTN that this must be Labour’s top priority.
“As founders and investors, we have seen the impact that harnessing the power of transformative technologies can have on a country’s prosperity and GDP through job creation and opportunity for all,” Hinrikus said.
The fintech founder said he “welcomed” Labour’s strategy to “leverage the UK’s tech strengths” and applauded the new government’s National Wealth Fund plan.
“To succeed, the new government must invest in infrastructure, resources and industries shaping the future, from data centres to fusion energy,” he added.
“We must also ensure that the most talented individuals are not deterred because of high visa costs and red tape.”
Hinrikus was one of more than 100 tech and investment leaders to back the Startup Coalition’s calls for the new government to reform the visa system to protect the pipeline of foreign talent contributing to British tech.
ACF Investors managing partner Tim Mills similarly approves of Labour’s “ambitious goals for long-term economic growth” as long as it can make good on backing innovation and entrepreneurship amid “growing competition from technology hubs around the world and across Europe”.
Labour’s climate tech strategy is ‘highly encouraging’
Climate change is another urgent issue on the new government’s unenviable to-do list. And with climate tech becoming one of the UK’s most promising tech sectors, there is a sense of optimism that Labour’s green investment pledges will be just what the doctor ordered.
For sustainable energy firm Hometree founder Simon Phelan, Labour’s green investment policies, though somewhat “watered down”, contain enough to get excited about.
The party’s pledge to expand access to clean energy tech in homes and its goal of creating a “green finance capital of the world” is “very encouraging”.
This level of ambition is necessary for the climate tech industry to grow,” Phelan said.
“But success will depend on Labour working with the clean tech industry to design policies that will benefit tech companies and enhance their ability to attract external investment.”
Gregory Dewerpe, managing partner at noa – formerly A/O Proptech – said the “raft of policies from the incoming government” around support for climate technology “demonstrate an understanding of the urgent need to make progress in the transition to net zero”.
Dewerpe said that while the private sector has been developing innovative climate solutions, “action is also needed at a policy and sector-wide level if these are to hit their target”.
Mission Zero Technologies co-founder Shiladitya Ghosh added that the arrival of a Labour government will bring the benefit of reducing the “gap between accessing VC investment and securing infrastructure-scale capital” and will also “drive more climate-tech founders to bring their businesses and jobs to the UK”.
Labour must take ‘best parts’ of AI policy
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a major talking point in the last few years with founders demanding that the new government understand the benefits it can have on boosting productivity in the economy.
The Labour Party manifesto is somewhat light when it comes to AI, though it has committed to long-term R&D budgets and to creating a new Regulatory Innovation Office as it believes that “regulators are currently ill-equipped to deal with the dramatic development of new technologies”.
Dominic Vergine, CEO and founder of startup Monumo, says that AI and other deep tech innovations have considerable “potential”. However, he is frustrated to see the public and private sectors pump cash into “flashy AI applications that are essentially wrappers around ChatGPT-style LLMs”. He hopes as Labour takes the reigns, AI priorities are worked out.
The founder, whose deep tech engineering startup focuses on creating electric motors, added: “Having pledged to spend £100m on AI regulation to ensure big tech does not hold all the power, Labour also needs to focus on providing effective R&D support and stimulating private investment into promising companies in this space with relevant, real-world applications.”
Echoing his thoughts, Dr Roeland Decorte, president of the AI Founders Association, said: “We are specifically looking for the Labour government to take the best parts of current UK AI policy – which, unlike the EU, takes a methodical and cautious approach, continuing to build state capacity – while shifting the focus away from only big tech and flashy, very large scale models.
“Focusing instead on the startups, companies and models that make up the core of, and are building a sustainable and profitable AI economy.”