The new Labour government could bring about a renaissance in UK tech and bolster the country’s precarious post-Brexit startup pipeline. That’s if politics don’t get in the way.

The new Labour government could bring about a renaissance in UK tech and bolster the country’s precarious post-Brexit startup pipeline. That’s if politics don’t get in the way.

The UK’s new government already has big plans. In the first few weeks after the election, it will signal to the world that Britain is “back” as a leading global player and rekindle ties with old friends in Europe.

Yet Britain’s calling card, when it comes to tech industry credentials, is not as sparkling as it once was. Its big bet on tech, allegedly a priority for the Conservative party following Brexit, has yet to manifest into a new golden age for the industry.

In fact, the UK tech landscape has survived many things during the 14 years of consecutive Conservative governments: Brexit; a tech talent pipeline problem; a two-and-a-half-year hiatus of its membership in Europe’s key science and innovation program, Horizon; overreliance on foreign investors; and a worrying lack of appeal as a place to grow startups or go public. A majority Labour government could change all that and turbocharge the tech industry into a new renaissance—if politics don’t get in the way.

Despite all these headwinds, the UK tech sector is still in remarkably good shape. It has around 50 startup unicorns (companies valued at over $1 billion), and its tech industry remains the third-most-valuable in the world after the US and China. But in 2023, fewer than 300 startups accessed funding in a Series A round (according to figures from investment community VenturePath), and only six companies achieved unicorn status, a worrying direction of travel for the industry.

A lack of ambitious pro-tech funding has underpinned what some startup founders, investors, and tech advocates that spoke to WIRED describe as a “difficult period” for the UK economy, with increased competition from startup hubs around the world.

Their message to this Labour government is clear: Improve investment opportunities, unlock the potential of future technologies, and steal certain things from the playbooks of former Conservative governments—and other nations—to get ahead.

But Labour hasn’t provided them with much reassurance yet. Its manifesto promises “Labour will make Britain the best place to start and grow a business,” will speed up approval times for new technology, and will establish “binding regulation” to develop artificial intelligence. It mentions a few other specifics, such as to “scrap short funding cycles for key R&D institutions in favour of ten-year budgets.” It also promises to “make Britain a clean energy supplier.” However, the party’s overall plan is to “unblock tech barriers to restart the engine of our economy,” a statement that is very vague and open to interpretation.

Antony Walker, deputy CEO of UK tech-sector trade association techUK, said “barriers” the Labour party intends to remove could include “challenges around the R&D credit system” and issues around continuing to build out and deepen the UK’s digital infrastructure, including planning for things like data centers.

THE FIRST THING that the tech industry wants is more strategy and ambition. “We need a go-to market strategy that says, ‘Here’s the emerging technologies in the next 10 to 20 years that are going to become important,’ the SWOT analysis that demonstrates the strengths and opportunities in the UK versus the strengths and opportunities in other countries,” says Charles Sturman, CEO of TechWorks, an industry body that represents UK semiconductor and deep tech companies. In his view, these include quantum computing, AI, and neuromorphic computing. “I think we need a longer-term, multiyear, multi-parliament, at least 10-year strategy that does all of this. But then also what we need is the government to be prepared to put public money on the table.” This would involve reversing Labour’s pledge to be frugal—a political risk in the current economy.

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