Labour for the Long Term Newsletter Spring 2023

Welcome to the Spring 2023 edition of the Labour for the Long Term newsletter! This edition covers:

1. Labour for the Long Term drinks on 17 May at The Red Lion, Parliament Street, London SW1A 2NH. 5.30pm start. RSVP here.
2. Our submissions to the Labour Party National Policy Forum on AI & data, semiconductor supply chain security, resilience and pandemic preparedness.
3. Our briefing on a Labour Party alternative to the Government’s National Resilience Framework.
4. Our response to the Government’s Energy Strategy.
5. Our response to the Government’s AI regulatory framework and international tech strategy.

1. Drinks on 17 May at The Red Lion, Westminster

We’ll be hosting drinks on 17 May at The Red Lion, Parliament Street, London SW1A 2NH, starting from 5.30pm.

Please RSVP here if you’re planning to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

2. Submissions to the Labour Party National Policy Forum.

Labour’s National Policy Forum is the Party’s way of hearing from members, supporters and stakeholders. The latest consultation ran until mid-March, and we submitted responses on the following topics:

• AI and data.
• Semiconductor supply chain security.
• Resilience.
• ‍Pandemic preparedness.

3. A Labour alternative to the Government’s National Resilience Framework

In response to the December 2022 release of the Government’s updated National Resilience Framework, we produced a briefing outlining the foundations of a Labour resilience strategy. Our briefing identified five key limitations in the Government’s framework:

1. The absence of a whole-of-society approach to resilience;
2. Inadequate focus on vulnerable and marginalised communities;
3. Slow speed of adoption of key reforms;
4. Inadequate risk management systems; and
5. Absence of focus on long-term and catastrophic risks.‍

Our briefing also includes a series of recommendations that a Labour resilience strategy should look to include.

4. Response to the Government’s Energy Strategy

At the end of March, the Government released its ‘Powering Up Britain’ energy strategy. We responded to this strategy, calling for the Government to urgently set out a coherent, long-term vision for climate action, incorporating not only energy security and net zero strategy, but also broader national resilience.

5. Response to the Government’s AI White Paper

In March, the Government published its long-awaited AI White Paper, containing the Government’s proposals for the establishment of a new regulatory framework to ‘guide and inform the responsible development and use of AI in all sectors of the economy’.

In our response to the Government's AI White Paper, we emphasised the need to implement the proposals as quickly as possible, adequately fund and empower the new AI risk function, and develop a cross-sectoral approach to regulate general purpose AI models.

We also recently responded to the Government's International Technology Strategy, setting out how a Labour Government could harness technological advances to support social and economic progress.

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Thank you for reading!