Business secretary Peter Kyle said the state will attempt to reverse the ‘brain drain’ of UK talent by ‘aggressively’ taking larger stakes in private sector firms.
Mr Kyle, who recently signalled his support for Labour leadership contender Wes Streeting, said such ‘aggressive ambition’ was needed to boost the British economy.
And he has vowed to take more risks to support business and showcase the UK as a place to do business.
A fan of strategic investment in the private sector rather than an ideological zealot for nationalisation, Mr Kyle is keen to prevent more talent, particularly in the burgeoning tech and AI industries, from leaving British shores.
But his promise of greater state intervention – and potentially interference – in private businesses is still likely to spark concern in some quarters that the Government should keep out of business.
His comments came after a succession of innovative British businesses, such as Cambridge-based computer chip manufacturer Arm, quit the UK. Arm is now valued at nearly $370 billion (£280 billion) after listing on the US Nasdaq exchange.
Calling for the Government to ‘come out of the shadows and into the light’, he said the UK had the ‘assets and the innovation’ but ‘lacked capital in the private markets’.
He said the Government must encourage business to stay and move to the UK by showing its ability to ‘aggressively partner’ and be an ‘active participant in high growth business’.
Peter Kyle has vowed to take more risks to support business and showcase the UK as a place to do business
Speaking at the right wing thinktank’s annual event, the business secretary called Mr Streeting his ‘friend and ally’
Peter Kyle has since refused to confirm he will explicitly back any Streeting ticket for No 10
‘When it comes to aggressive ambition, this government isn’t going to sit aside from the businesses we are backing. I want that partnership to be felt in a much more meaningful way,’ he said.
Mr Kyle will set out his vision for strategic investment at London Tech Week next week where he will outline how he believes the government can and must kickstart the economy.
The event will coincide with the release of new figures from Tech Nation, revealing that UK technology companies now have a combined value of $1.6 trillion, with AI companies making up a third of this figure.
Mr Kyle said it was time ‘to start taking more risks and ‘upping the risk threshold in our desire to back British innovation as it scales’ by investing taxpayers’ money in fast-growing companies.
In a dig at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as being ‘aggressive without a purpose’, he said bullishly that he wanted to ‘be aggressive with a purpose’.
Last month, Mr Kyle acted as a warm-up number for Mr Streeting’s keynote speech at the Progress conference, where the former Health Secretary officially announced his leadership ambitions.
Speaking at the right-wing thinktank’s annual event, he called Mr Streeting his ‘friend and ally’, adding: ‘Wes is legendary and a good, solid, courageous friend who is a talent that is much needed by this party.
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‘Now, the truth is that too often in government, we have got in our own way – overthinking, overcautious, over planning, too much consulting, too little explaining. In politics, as in life, fortune favours the bold.’
But he has since refused to confirm he will explicitly back any Streeting ticket for No 10.
He would only coyly respond to a question in tomorrow’s Sunday Times about whether Sir Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting would deliver the best business environment with ‘A Labour government with me in it’.
Earlier this year, the Government took a moderately small stake in Kraken, investing £25 million into the technology arm of Octopus Energy, which is valued at £6.5 billion.
It invested a similar stake in robotaxi firm Wayve during its $1.5 billion funding round.
Kyle has now suggested that such investment will step up a gear, and in return the Government can help companies to ‘deploy’ their technology.
‘My department has been making phone calls on behalf of Wayve,’ he explained. ‘That means we share the ambition of Wayve — we take on some of the challenges in getting this stuff through the system.’
He said he wanted the Government to ‘use all of its parts’ to help business and wanted to be ‘part of the journey’ of taking a ‘start-up to a £10 billion company.
‘I want them to stay here and I want them to list here. They are going to want to stay in a place where they have a government that is on their side, and there is more than one way of doing that,’ he said.
