Well, hardworking folks have worked through the night counting votes, sometimes two or three times, ready for the rest of us in the UK to wake up to news of a change in government with a Labour landslide majority. We’ve all seen the campaigns and heard the catchy soundbites, but what will that mean specifically for technology and business issues? While we can’t say with 100% certainty, we’ve read all 136 pages of the Labour manifesto so you don’t have to, and here’s what they have to say.

Any quotes included in this article, were taken from the PDF version of the manifesto, accessed at https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf on Friday 5th July 2024, and have been copied and pasted directly from the document for accuracy.

Business financials

In a bid to create a stable industrial strategy, they will be looking ahead longer-term, to “end short-term economic policy making with the establishment of an Industrial Strategy Council, on a statutory footing, to provide expert advice.”

In keeping with long-term thinking, when it comes to business taxation, they claim in their manifesto that they will vastly the reduce the chopping and changing businesses have become accustomed to, with corporation tax having changed 26 times. “We are committed to one major fiscal event a year, giving families and businesses due warning of tax and spending policies. We will publish a roadmap for business taxation for the next parliament which will allow businesses to plan investments with confidence.”

They also promise to cap corporation tax at the current level of 25% for the entire length of parliament, and are looking to address inequality between high street and online retail by implementing a new system to replace business rates in a fairer way, while raising the same amount of revenue. “This new system will level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship.”

Artificial Intelligence

Recognising the speed at which AI is developing, “We will ensure our industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector, removes planning barriers to new datacentres. And we will create a National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit.”

Not just specifically talking about AI, they discuss how regulators are currently ill-equipped to deal with “the dramatic development of new technologies” which often involve multiple traditional industries and sectors. They want to create a Regulatory Innovation Office which could help keep regulation up-to-speed. With a focus on AI, “Labour will ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models and by banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.”

Security

When it comes to national security, hybrid warfare methods like cyber-attacks and misinformation campaigns are a growing threat to democracy, they’ve pledged they “will conduct a Strategic Defence Review within our first year in government, and we will set out the path to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.”

At a personal security level, as part of their promise to ensure stalking is taken more seriously, they will “strengthen the use of Stalking Protection Orders and give women the right to know the identity of online stalkers.”

They’ve also talked about the need for policing to keep up with the changing pace of crime with technology and investigative techniques needing to keep pace with ever-evolving crime. “We will work with national policing bodies and police staff to standardise approaches to procurement, IT, professional standards and training. And we will ensure the service is organised so as to enable investment in specialist capabilities, such as digital forensics, and to more effectively tackle cross-border issues such as serious organised crime.”

When it comes to young people’s access to online content: “Children and young people face significant harm online, with inappropriate content too easily available at their fingertips on a smartphone. We have seen an increase in extreme misogynistic content online driving a culture of violence against women. Labour will build on the Online Safety Act, bringing forward provisions as quickly as possible, and explore further measures to keep everyone safe online, particularly when using social media. We will also give coroners more powers to access information held by technology companies after a child’s death.”

Communication Infrastructure

In their 2024 manifesto, Labour are pledging to bring the UK in line with other countries, with the roll out of full gigabit broadband and national 5G coverage by 2030.

So there we are, a deep-dive into the specifics of their promises. Something a little different to our usual content, but we didn’t even have a blog at the last change of government!

If you’re looking for an IT Company who both ‘gets business’, and gets down to the business of providing IT services that just work, please get in touch. We’re a friendly, knowledgeable bunch and will always help where we can. 

You might also find this helpful: Future-proofing data security for SMEs