Julia Lopez

There is so much to be proud of in our nation - not least the super brainy entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers who make sure the UK continues to spin out innovations the world wants to snap up. Their value is on full display right now in Olympia for London Tech Week. The challenge for the political class is to make sure that these brilliant people see their futures here too.

Six months ago, Keir Starmer said he was personally opposed to a social media ban for under 16s. Now? He sees a ban as one of his only chances for a positive legacy. Good. But enough now with the hints and the briefings. Let’s see the plan to get this u-turn implemented ASAP.

It’s London Tech Week! And Keir Starmer is kicking it off with a ‘big speech’ on AI. You know the drill by now. “This government chooses the side of working people”. Drum roll (baited breath as we wonder whether Labour will cut employment costs, get rid of its Unemployment Bill, deliver cheaper energy…) “So we’re launching a limited three-month trial of an AI work assistant and will then gather data and feedback on whether it’s got any value beyond this headline”

Talented, energetic young people are struggling to get jobs in Labour’s Britain. Nearly a fifth are set to be unemployed next year. Any MP who talks to businesses in their constituency - especially shops and restaurants - will know that they’re hiring fewer young people inc apprentices because they’re being bombarded with tax hikes (from NICs to business rates) while new employment regs make it riskier to take a bet on someone with no experience. Owners would love to take people on but they can’t afford to. They end up working the extra hours themselves - not to make more profit but to stay afloat. They're exhausted and wonder why they bother. And the response from Labour is to squawk at me that you don’t pay NICs on 18 year-olds. Meanwhile Welfare Sec, Pat McFadden, devises a Youth Guarantee that's effectively a sub to employers to give short-term work placements to young people after 18 months on the dole to change their minds about the underlying economics. Here’s a novel idea - don’t tax business so much in the first place.

I grew up in a country where we took for granted the idea of equality before the law and democracy based on a battle of ideas not identities. Yes, those things were clearly not always perfectly executed but they were aspired to and agreed upon. Identity politics has been steadily eroding those ideas and it is breeding deep distrust in institutions and in one another. The answer is not more identity politics but to remind ourselves that the restoration of those principles are what can bind us back together.

It is not 'political bickering' to set out genuine concern that Labour is getting all the basics wrong - tax, energy, heavy new regs, an anti-success narrative. It's an approach that's screwing the economy and people's aspirations. Yet every leadership candidate has their hands over their ears. If PM wannabe, Darren Jones, won't take it from me, perhaps he'll listen to Welfare Secretary, Pat McFadden, who's been moaning to Mandelson, 'Every meeting I have is 'who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others'.

Nobody knows for sure what AI means for jobs - the predictions range from apocalyptic to the tech not living up to the productivity hype. With that level of uncertainty, the government should focus on getting the basics right so that firms want to stay or come here - making our economy stronger, giving us options to deal with whatever change comes. By basics, I mean: Low tax. Labour has spent two years making it harder, riskier and costlier to employ humans with the NICs changes and Unemployment Act. Cheap, abundant energy. Strong competition laws - stop digital monopolies from snuffing out innovation and alternatives. Agile regulation - no aligning ourselves to uncompetitive EU tech rules. Procurement - make it as easy for dynamic British tech SMEs to navigate government spend as hyperscalers with big lobbying ops. Scale-up funding - British pension funds need to get back to investing in UK equities so that amazing companies can grow here. That means addressing the core reasons (regulations and tax) they’ve become so risk averse. Talent - make the best minds want to stay in the UK instead of the anti-success rhetoric and policy.

At midnight, Labour's can-kicking consultation on social media closes. Ministers have made an art form of dressing up indecision as decisive action when it comes to getting children off harmful social media. The truth is that it is parental and political pressure - not their own impatience - that has pushed them this far. And yet already the Times is being briefed tonight that "the UK is poised to shun a social media ban for under-16s". https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/social-media-ban-under-16s-australia-instagram-8cksq7gml

It was a pleasure to speak yesterday at the @UKPrivateCap conference. In the UK we have some of the standout institutions in the world academically, we have got innovation to die for, and we've got great opportunities to commercialise and then build fantastic businesses here in the UK. Amid those great fundamentals, the government should focus not on writing strategy documents or standing up new programmes but giving UK companies the tools to win - cheap energy, low tax, making sure talented people want to stay here, incentivising pension funds to invest in scale-up businesses.

Too many MPs still harbour the view that Brexit was an exercise in nostalgia, pushed on everyone by uninformed thickos. The truth is that it has delivered a major strategic advantage in the industries of the future - an advantage that Labour risks trading away. Today the Tech Secretary refused to rule out aligning us with the EU's AI Act and other tech laws as part of Labour's EU 'reset'. She knows our autonomy on tech is at risk, which is why someone in her ministerial team is briefing the @FT that Starmer's EU plans could 'smother' British innovation. Mario Draghi has warned the EU's approach to tech is killing Europe's competitiveness. Chancellor Merz wants looser rules for Germany. Over 40 EU companies are asking for a two-year stop clock on the AI Act. Labour thinks this is what a growth plan looks like.

Labour - talks big, acts nuts. Whether it's Andy Burnham's promise to reindustrialise or Liz Kendall's pledge to get ahead on AI, Ed Miliband's crazy energy policy scuppers it all. I've just had a telecoms firm tell me that the cost of UK energy is so high that they're slowing mobile network rollout. How can telcos keep everyone's phone bills low when energy is 12% of operating costs and increasing as a percentage every year? How can mobile coverage improve when money has to go into energy bills not new masts? How can you have an AI revolution without the digital infrastructure that underpins it?

The Labour Party is about to have a popularity contest over who can spend more of your money, badly. It’s terrifying.

R to @JuliaLopezMP: The Tech Department cannot even measure progress on a brand new AI programme it launched a few months ago. This should be as simple as a quick check of a real-time data platform. Heaven help the government's public sector AI efficiency drive if they cannot even tell us how many people have used their AI Skills Hub.

Labour don’t get that their policies are driving the very things they say they want to fix. They then try to fix that by spending everyone’s tax on stuff that doesn’t work. Take this. Liz Kendall famously failed to cut welfare while Rachel Reeves jacked up jobs taxes. Both policies are killing opportunity for young people. Now it’s more expensive to employ humans at a time when AI is disrupting the graduate jobs market. Kendall becomes Tech Secretary, launches an AI Skills Hub to ‘help’ same young people. It costs millions and a few months in, they can’t even tell us how many people are using it. A low tech solution to sound high tech, while completely screwing the fundamentals on employment taxes. See the useless PQ answer we got on this below. 👇

On Friday @MartinDaubney @GBNews asked whether we’re now at the ‘Comical Ali’ stage of Keir Starmer’s premiership. With the return of Brown and Harman, and briefings that Starmer wants another ten years in No 10, perhaps so. The problem for Labour is that they haven't got a clear alternative and don't know whether they should go to the left or go to the right. They're not quite sure what they stand for any more. But all the country knows is that they've been a disaster as a government.

It was a tough Thursday and Friday in Havering for us as a Conservative family, despite great progress in other parts of London. While we did not have councillors to lose in Hornchurch & Upminster, it was very sad not to have our brilliant candidates elected and, in the Romford constituency, to see good, loyal and effective Conservative councillors lose their seats. We now have a Reform council instead of a Residents’ Association one. I wish everyone in it well and hope it delivers the better value and services that residents deserve. I had good chats at the election count with some of the new councillors as well as those who lost their seats, and admire anyone who stands for elected office to serve not seek status. These are politically volatile times with many parties now on the pitch. With a Prime Minister swap inevitable and the cost of government borrowing worryingly high, a lot will change in the three years before the next General Election. My view is that every political party - Reform included - is now on watch. The residents I spoke to on the doorstep are desperately worried about the country’s direction and frustrated that decent people are being clobbered every which way. The party they choose at the next General Election will be the one not just diagnosing problems and presenting solutions but demonstrating the courage and competence to deliver them. Ever since our electoral walloping in July 2024, the Conservative Party has been working to become that choice. Anyone who wishes to contribute and help in our mission, please join us and our hardy and optimistic local team - http://membership.conservatives.com