Labour government will ‘take more risks’ and obtain ‘aggressive’ stakes in British private sector firms with taxpayer money to kick-start growth
Economy Minister Peter Kyle said the government would seek to reverse the ‘brain drain’ of UK talent by ‘aggressively’ taking larger stakes in private sector firms.
Mr Kyle, who recently signaled support for Labor leadership candidate Wes Streeting, said such ‘aggressive ambition’ was needed to revive the British economy.
He also vowed to take more risks to support business and portray the UK as a place to do business.
An advocate of strategic investment in the private sector rather than an ideological fanatic of nationalisation, Mr Kyle wants to prevent more talent from leaving British shores, particularly in the emerging technology and artificial intelligence industries.
But the promise of greater government intervention (and potential interference) in the private sector is still likely to raise concerns in some quarters that the Government should stay out of business.
His comments follow the departure of a number of innovative British businesses from the UK, such as Cambridge-based computer chip maker Arm. Arm is now worth around $370bn (£280bn) after listing on the US Nasdaq exchange.
Calling on the government to ‘come out of the shadows and into the light’, he said the UK had ‘assets and innovation’ but ‘lacks capital in private markets’.
He said the government should encourage business to stay and move to the UK by demonstrating its ability to form ‘aggressive partnerships’ and be ‘an active participant in high growth businesses’.
Peter Kyle vows to take more risks to support business and portray the UK as a place to do business
Speaking at the right-wing think tank’s annual event, the business secretary called Mr Streeting a ‘friend and ally’
Peter Kyle has since refused to confirm that he would publicly support any Streeting ticket for No 10.
‘When it comes to aggressive ambition, this government will not stand outside the businesses we support. “I want this partnership to be felt in a much more meaningful way,” he said.
Mr Kyle will set out his vision for strategic investment at London Technology Week next week, where he will explain how he believes the government can and should kick-start the economy.
The event will coincide with the release of new figures from Tech Nation, which will reveal that UK tech companies now have a combined value of $1.6 trillion, with AI companies making up a third of that figure.
Mr Kyle said it was time to ‘start taking more risks and raise the risk threshold in our desire to support British innovation as it scales’ by investing taxpayers’ money in fast-growing companies.
In an article accusing Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of being a ‘purposeless aggressor’, he loudly said he wanted to ‘be an aggressor with a purpose’.
Last month, Mr Kyle acted as a warm-up number for Mr Streeting’s keynote address at the Progress conference, where the former Health Secretary formally announced his leadership bid.
Speaking at the right-wing think tank’s annual event, he called Mr Streeting his ‘friend and ally’, adding: ‘Wes is a good, solid, brave fellow who is legendary and a talent this party desperately needs.
‘The truth is that we often get in our own way in government; overthinking, overcautious, overplanning, consulting too much, explaining too little. In politics, as in life, luck favors the brave.’
But he has since refused to confirm he would publicly support any Streeting ticket for No 10.
In tomorrow’s Sunday Times, Sir Keir Starmer would sheepishly respond to a question about whether Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting could provide the best business environment with ‘a Labor government with me in it’.
Earlier this year the Government took a moderately small stake in Kraken and invested £25m in Octopus Energy’s £6.5bn technology arm.
It invested a similar stake in robotaxi firm Wayve during its $1.5 billion funding round.
Kyle has now suggested that such investments could kick into high gear, and in turn the Government could help companies ‘roll out’ their technologies.
‘My department makes phone calls on Wayve’s behalf,’ he explained. ‘This means we share Wayve’s passion; We’re taking on some of the challenges of getting these things through the system.’
He said he wanted the government to ‘use all its parts’ to help business and wanted to be ‘part of the journey’ to ‘start up a £10bn company’.
‘I want them to stay here and be listed here. “They’re going to want to stay in a place where they have a government on their side, and there’s more than one way to do that,” he said.
