Labour is determined to ensure that artificial intelligence enhances employment rather than displaces workers, the technology secretary has insisted, as the government rolls out a suite of training schemes explicitly designed to reach the country’s most disadvantaged young people.
Liz Kendall, speaking ahead of London Tech Week which begins on 8 June, said the choice facing Britain was not whether to adopt AI but how to shape its impact. “We’ve got to make sure AI enhances work: that we help people through the jobs transition, and we’re not like the Tories, who just leave people to cope on their own,” she said. The government, she argued, could direct the technology to benefit workers and communities that have been left behind, rather than “a powerful, unaccountable few”.
Kendall’s remarks come amid mounting public anxiety over the effect of AI on jobs, particularly for younger workers. Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has warned that AI will be a “tsunami hitting the labour market”, with the young worst affected. She has estimated that the technology could transform or eliminate up to 60% of jobs in advanced economies and 40% globally, and risks worsening inequality as AI-enhanced professionals earn more while entry-level roles vanish.
Training Schemes Targeting Disadvantaged Youth
Central to Labour’s response is the £187 million TechFirst AI training scheme, announced last year and now adjusted by Kendall so that 40% of the one million children it aims to reach will come from disadvantaged schools. The scheme forms part of the government’s broader AI Opportunities Action Plan, which calls for training, attracting and retaining AI talent. It also sits alongside a partnership with Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA to upskill 7.5 million UK workers in AI by 2030.
But the most direct intervention for the hardest-to-reach young people is a pair of pilot summer skills camps in the north-east and north-west of England. These camps are aimed at young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) or those at risk of becoming NEET. The north-west pilot offers 60 places, the north-east 20, with both expected to be scaled up. Delivered in collaboration with businesses, the camps are intended to open a route to an apprenticeship. “We will have a national programme to prevent young people who are at risk of becoming Neet, to make sure that they actually get a free summer skills programme that we hope will lead for many to a place on an apprenticeship course,” Kendall said.
The north-east scheme is funded by Labour’s Youth Guarantee, which promises support for any young person who has been out of work for 18 months or more, offering training, apprenticeships or job-finding help for 18-to-21-year-olds. The urgency of such measures was underlined last week when the former Labour minister Alan Milburn published an interim report describing the situation as a “record of failure” and warning of a “lost generation”. The number of young NEETs in the UK has passed one million for the first time in a decade, with the cumulative cost to the economy estimated at £125 billion a year. The report cites multiple causes: health problems, especially mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions; thinning entry-level jobs; a decline in apprenticeships; dehumanising recruitment processes; inadequate careers guidance; and a welfare system that can amplify detachment.
Kendall acknowledged the scale of the crisis but rejected the idea that AI would inevitably cause mass unemployment. “Jobs will be created. Jobs will change. And some jobs will go. That is what happens with the introduction of every general purpose technology,” she said. Yet critics have questioned the government’s close collaboration with big tech firms in its training programmes, arguing that public money could be better allocated to local and community organisations. Concerns have also been raised that such partnerships normalise the influence of US technology giants in British governance.
Broader Tech Challenges: NHS Data and Online Safety
Beyond training, the technology secretary faces several other contentious files. The Commons science, innovation and technology committee this week called for the government to cancel a major contract with the US data firm Palantir for digitising the NHS. At issue is Palantir’s £330 million contract with NHS England for the Federated Data Platform (FDP), which connects disparate patient data. MPs have voiced concerns about the exact nature of Palantir’s access to patient information, the statutory basis for that access, and the potential for mass surveillance. The committee urged ministers to use a “break clause” available in February 2027 and to develop a British alternative. Palantir has defended its record, calling the report “irresponsible” and insisting its technology delivers benefits for the NHS, crime reduction and military capability.
Kendall said she understood the concerns but emphasised that the decision on whether to trigger the break clause rested with the new health secretary, James Murray. “Having our NHS digitised is really important,” she added. “It’s really important to improve outcomes for patients and to make doctors and nurses’ lives easier. But you will also know, as I’ve said, we do want to see much more happening to back British AI companies.”
On online safety, the government’s consultation on banning social media for under-16s is expected to produce an announcement soon. Kendall confirmed that the overwhelming response from parents had been to call for action. She stressed that ministers were examining a wider set of issues than just a blanket ban, including how children interact with AI chatbots, “stranger pairing” in video games (where an unknown individual can interact directly with a child), livestreaming, and better age-verification measures. The consultation, titled “Growing up in the online world”, ran from March to May 2026 and found that 89% of respondents favoured a legal minimum age for social media access, with 96% agreeing that the minimum should be at least 16. The Online Safety Act 2023 already mandates age checks for certain harmful content, but the government is also developing AI tutoring tools to provide personalised learning support, particularly for disadvantaged children.
Kendall declined to discuss a separate political narrative that has swirled around her: rumours that she could be vulnerable if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection on 18 June and shifts the Labour Party to the left. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Josh Simons. Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has signalled his intention to run in a future leadership contest if the opportunity arises. If elected as an MP, he would be disqualified from his mayoral role, triggering a mayoral byelection. But Kendall brushed aside the speculation. “For everything that is going on in the world and within my party, every single day this government is making a difference,” she said.
She returned to her central message: that the government must be an active shaper of technology rather than a passive bystander. “Too much of this debate is as if this is being done to us, and we say yes or no. But the truth is, the choice isn’t between having AI or trying to stop it, or having it or not. The choice is between shaping it to work for us or being left at its mercy and its whim.”
