As expected, the Labour Party is set to win a landslide victory in the 2024 general election and form a government, ending 14 years in opposition.
With almost all the votes now counted, Labour has won 411 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, while Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party had a tough night with just 118 seats.
The election comes after a series of macroeconomic headwinds fuelled by rapid technological change.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party campaigned on winning the support of technology and business with policies promising increased investment and economic stability, but now that the election is over, the focus has shifted to governing.
How confident are founders and investors that a Labour government will maintain the tech sector as an engine of growth for the UK?
“Throughout the election campaign we heard time and time again how passionately Keir and the Labour team believe in regrowing Britain,” said Dom Hallas, executive director of the Start-Up Alliance, an industry lobby group.
“Tech startups across the country support them in that regard, and we look forward to working together to make this happen.”
Labour’s economic plans ‘welcome’
The Conservatives left the new government with huge financial challenges, with funding and growth largely stagnating.
Taavet Hinrichs, co-founder of Wise and partner at Plural, said: England This must be Labour’s number one priority.
“As founders and investors, we have seen how leveraging the power of transformative technology can impact a country’s prosperity and GDP through job creation and opportunity for all,” Hinrichs said.
The fintech founder “welcomed” Labour’s strategy to harness the UK’s tech strengths and praised the new government’s plans for a national wealth fund.
“To succeed, the new government must invest in the infrastructure, resources and industries that will shape the future, from data centres to fusion energy,” he added.
“And we need to ensure that the high cost and cumbersome visa procedures don’t put off our most talented people.”
Hinrichs was one of more than 100 technology and investment leaders who backed the Start-Up Coalition’s call for the new government to reform the visa system to protect the pipeline of foreign talent contributing to the UK’s tech industry.
Tim Mills, managing partner at ACF Investors, similarly supports Labour’s “ambitious goals for long-term economic growth” as long as it can boost innovation and entrepreneurship amid “increasing competition from global and pan-European tech hubs.”
Labour’s climate tech strategy ‘highly promising’
Climate change is another pressing issue on the new government’s to-do list. Climate technology is emerging as one of the UK’s most promising tech sectors, and there is optimism that Labour’s green investment pledges will be just what the doctor prescribed.
For Simon Phelan, founder of sustainable energy company Hometree, Labour’s green investment policy is somewhat “watered down” but there is still plenty to be excited about.
He said it was “very encouraging” that the party has pledged to expand access to clean energy technologies for homes and has set a goal of creating a “global green finance centre”.
“This level of ambition is necessary for the climate tech industry to grow,” Phelan said.
“But success will depend on Labor working with the clean tech industry to develop policies that benefit tech companies and increase their ability to attract outside investment.”
Gregory Dewarp, managing partner at noa (formerly A/O Proptech), said the “incoming administration’s suite of policies” on climate technology assistance “demonstrates an understanding of the urgent need to advance the transition to net zero.”
Dewarp said that while the private sector is developing innovative solutions to climate change, “action is also needed at the policy and sector-wide level to reach our goals.”
Shiladitya Ghosh, co-founder of Mission Zero Technologies, added that a Labour government would narrow the “gap between access to venture capital investment and securing infrastructure-scale capital”, benefiting “more climate tech founders to bring their businesses and jobs to the UK”.
Labour must adopt ‘best parts’ of AI policy
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in recent years, with founders urging the new government to understand the benefits it can bring to productivity in the economy.
Labour’s manifesto is a little lighter on AI, but believes “regulators are currently ill-prepared to deal with the dramatic developments in new technologies” and promises a long-term research and development budget and the creation of a new Regulatory Innovation Office.
Dominic Vergine, CEO and founder of startup Monumo, says AI and other deep tech innovations have huge “potential.” But he’s frustrated to see the public and private sectors pouring money into “fancy AI applications that are essentially wrappers around ChatGPT-style LLMs.” He expects Labor to make AI a priority if it comes to power.
The founder of a deep tech engineering start-up focused on developing electric motors added: “Having promised to spend £100 million on AI regulation to stop big tech companies getting all the power, Labour must also focus on supporting effective R&D and encouraging private investment in promising companies with relevant real-world applications in this field.”
His thoughts were echoed by Dr Roland Decorte, chairman of the AI Founders Association, who said: “We particularly hope that a Labour government will take the best parts of current UK AI policy and, unlike the EU, take a methodical and measured approach, continuing to build national capability whilst placing greater emphasis on it rather than shifting the focus solely to big tech companies and flashy large-scale models.”
“Instead, we will focus on the startups, companies and models that constitute and are building the core of a sustainable and profitable AI economy.”
