By Jessica Frank-Keyes
Keir Starmer hit the stage at London Tech Week this morning to mount Labour’s charm offensive on the great and good of London tech.
Starmer’s address to the conference followed a major presence from top Tory figures yesterday, with talks from both Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt.
Speaking on the main stage in Westminster, the Labour leader covered everything from the travails of his former opposite numbers Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon, and the threat of AI.
Here are five things we learned:
Starmer will look to focus AI on jobs
Speaking to the conference, the Labour leader was light on threats of existential wipeout but warned that thousands of jobs could be made redundant in the years ahead without proper regulation.
“AI is accelerating very fast, that some of the jobs that are being done now by people will almost certainly be [done] by AI – already are to some extent – but I’m really struck by the speed of acceleration of development in AI,” Starmer said.
“We need to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of the great benefits but guard against the risks.”
But job threats won’t lead to UBI rollout…
Starmer said he was not drawn to the rollout of universal basic income (UBI) as a mitigation measure against the impact of AI on jobs and would instead throw a Labour government behind reskilling the workforce.
“I’m not attracted to universal basic income. I think that the advantage here would be for AI to take some of the jobs that AI can do and for us to make sure that we can train and retrain and reskill the workforce into other areas.”
Plans to retain tech firms in UK under wraps
The Labour leader was light on detail when it came to how Labour would to reinvigorate the appeal of London on the international stage.
While shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and City minister Tulip Siddiq have previously talked of unlocking pension cash and forcing pension managers into equity markets, Starmer spoke only of ‘creating the right environment’.
“The problem with startups is that when they scale up, they tend to go elsewhere. So we’ve got to capture that point, which is about access to capital and create the environment where we can succeed on this,” he told the conference.
“I genuinely think we can do it, but it is about creating the environment.”
Sturgeon arrest interrupted wife’s birthday
Starmer told attendees he was given the news of the former PM Boris Johnson’s resignation after making a speech on Friday evening – before getting the news of the ex-first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest via a news notification at wife Victoria’s birthday lunch.
“As I sat down, I got a note put in front of me that said ‘Boris Johnson has resigned with immediate effect’. Then on Sunday, [we] went for lunch with friends and as we were sitting down I saw my phone ping up that Nicola Sturgeon had been arrested. That’s quite a lot to pack into one weekend and it comes on the back of a very turbulent 12 months or so.
“We’ve burnt through three prime ministers, four chancellors and four budgets. Politically that makes for a lot of material – it is certainly evidence of chaos. Now we’ve got three by-elections caused by political fallouts… to have three by-elections which are essentially political tantrums is unprecedented.”
And SNP ‘implosion’ gives Labour path to power
While he insisted his party still had to “earn every vote” north of the border, Starmer’s willingness to openly describe the SNP’s decline as an “opportunity” for Labour and a “profound implosion” speaks volumes.
“It’s allowed a proper examination of the SNP record in government. Until now the SNP was able to ensure that the only discussion in Scotland was about the referendum and constitutional issues.
“From our point of view it obviously gives us an opportunity to make an argument about Scotland that means we are more likely to be heard. We’ve got a strong case to put forward… we’ve got to earn every vote but we’ve now got the chance to make that case.”
