UK government’s deal with Google ‘dangerously naive’, say campaigners
Google has agreed a sweeping deal with the UK government to provide free technology to the public sector from the NHS to local councils– a move campaigners have called “dangerously naive”.The US company will be asked to “upskill” tens of thousands of civil servants in technology, including in using artificial intelligence, as part of an agreement that will not require the government to pay.It is considered in Whitehall to be giving Google “a foot in the door” as the digitisation of public services accelerates.However, the agreement prompted concerns about the precariousness of UK public data potentially being held on US servers amid the unpredictable leadership of Donald Trump.The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said Google Cloud, which provides databases, machine learning and computing power, had “agreed to work with the UK government in helping public services use advanced tech to shake off decades old ‘ball and chain’ legacy contracts which leave essential services vulnerable to cyber-attack”.
Google’s services are considered more agile and efficient than traditional competitors, but there are concerns in Whitehall’s digital circles about the government becoming locked into a new kind of dependency.Other US tech firms including Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic have also been providing services to civil servants as they attempt to harness technology to boost the efficiency of cash-strapped public services.On Wednesday, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, met two of Mark Zuckerberg’s most senior lieutenants, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, and the head of its global business group, Nicola Mendelsohn.During the pandemic in 2020, Palantir, a tech firm founded by the libertarian Trump donor Peter Thiel, provided services to the UK government for £1 and in 2023 it won a £330m deal to create a single platform for NHS data.DSIT also said Google DeepMind, the tech company’s AI division, which is led by the Nobel prize-winning scientist Demis Hassabis, would “collaborate with technical experts in government to support them in deploying and diffusing new emerging technologies, driving efficiencies across the public sector, including accelerating scientific discovery”.
But with ministers and government regulators facing pressing decisions on how to regulate AI, search, cloud computing and copyright, Martha Dark, the co-executive director of Foxglove, a non-profit organisation campaigning for fairer use of technology, said: “How is the government going to be able to hold Trump-supporting US big tech giants to any kind of serious account on this – or any other issue – after we’ve given Google the keys to the data kingdom? It’s hard to see this as anything other than dangerously naive on the part of Peter Kyle [the science and technology secretary] and government as a whole.”Other experts said the agreement could “entrench the market power” of a company such as Google and leave the UK government reliant on the technology from giant firms.Kyle, who announced the deal at a Google event in London on Wednesday, said “wherever possible, UK technology companies – large and small – [will] get a fair shot” at winning public tech contracts.The opportunity secured by Google was not put out to public tender as no money was changing hands, a government source said.DSIT said: “These arrangements will operate in full compliance with all applicable public procurement laws, and may be subject to future commercial agreements.
”Kyle has held 11 meetings with representatives of Google since Labour took office, according to departmental registers up to the end of March.The government said the agreement does not grant permission for Google to train AI models on government data or access the data for other purposes.It also said data could only be stored overseas when satisfactory legal and security measures were in place.Google said it offered clients control of where their content was stored and processed, including in partnerships with independent infrastructure providers or through “air-gapped” systems that provide an extra layer of protection.Kyle has said he wants to “exploit the full potential of a partnership between government and Google, with much more collaboration between their UK AI lab, DeepMind, and my own AI developers”.
There have been signs of new technology delivering efficiencies in the public sector,A recent trial of Microsoft’s AI Copilot tool, provided with a discount, by 20,000 civil servants found it saved them 26 minutes a day on average, according to a government study, and 82% said they did not want to return to previous working practices,But Imogen Parker, an associate director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, a research body focused on ensuring technology works for society, said the deal raised questions about the UK’s digital sovereignty,“The public needs to understand what Google is getting from this partnership and what the return will be for taxpayers in years to come,” she said,“Deals like this might look like good value for money today, but they risk lock-in tomorrow – limiting our ability to seek alternatives in future.
”Kyle has previously been accused of being too close to big tech, and he opened his speech by saying he pleaded guilty to the “crime“ of meeting tech executives far more than his predecessor, after it was reported by the Guardian.“I make absolutely no apologies for meeting with technology companies – that’s the job,” he said, adding that it was important for keeping children safe on social media, making sure Britain was prepared for developments at the frontier of AI, and securing better deals for the taxpayer for the billions of pounds spent every year on technology.
Labour MPs alarmed by rise in sponsored events arranged by party
Labour MPs have privately raised alarm at the number of sponsored corporate receptions for backbenchers that have been arranged by the party, amid concerns about perceived conflicts of interest.MPs have received invitations for networking receptions that include explicit advertisements for property developers or public affairs firms. The invitations are sent to MPs directly from the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) office and forwarded by party whips.“The PLP office has literally become a public affairs agency,” one MP said. “The wording is genuinely shocking
Starmer and Macron agree that ‘new deterrent’ needed to stop small boats, No 10 says – as it happened
Downing Street has issued a statement about Keir Starmer’s talks with Emmanuel Macron over lunch today. It says the PM and the president agreed that “a new deterrent” was needed to stop the small boat crossings.This seems to be a reference to the idea of a “one in, one out” returns scheme, which would involve migrants arriving illegally in the UK being swiftly returned to France, but with the UK also agreeing to take in an equivalent number of migratns based in France who are claiming asylum in the UK. Starmer is said to be urging Macron to accept a deal of this sort, but Macron has reportedly been resisting, and the idea is unpopular with some other European countries. Last month Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta wrote to the European commission complaining that such a scheme could incentivise even more irregular migration into southern Europe
Another mediocre stalemate at PMQs as neither Kemi nor Keir bother to engage | John Crace
Spare a thought for Rachel Reeves. After last week’s mini-meltdown during prime minister’s questions, the chancellor is now condemned to spend the next year grinning manically every time she’s out and about in public. Having a bad day at the office? GRIN. Had a row with the kids? GRIN. Now there is no escape
Caught between the Senedd and Westminster, Welsh Labour risks collapsing loyalty
Playing Tom Jones and Catatonia at the decks and later taking to the dancefloor wrapped in a Welsh flag, Eluned Morgan, at least, was having a good time at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno last month.But almost a year into the job as first minister of the Labour government in the Senedd, working alongside a Labour administration in Westminster, the party arguably does not have much to make a song and dance about.For 100 years, the Welsh have been Labour’s most loyal voters, and they have returned the party to government in Cardiff since devolution almost 27 years ago. But poll after poll now says Labour’s base has collapsed and the party will come third in the Senedd elections next May, after Plaid Cymru and Reform UK. In Westminster, the worry is the Welsh elections will prove a bellwether for the next general election in 2029
MPs and peers make awkward small talk during wait for box-office hit Macron
It wasn’t quite the Pyramid stage. When the queen, the pope, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama were invited to address both houses of parliament, they were given Westminster Hall. On the first state visit of any European leader since Brexit, Emmanuel Macron had to make do with the Royal Gallery. The UK has been on quite the journey since Liz Truss was unable to identify the French president as friend or foe.Still, the Royal Gallery is not a bad second-best
Macron tells UK parliament that Europe must end its dependency on the US and China – as it happened
Macron says European countries must end their “excessive dependencies on both the US and China”.He suggests China’s use of subsidies are a threat to fair trade.And he says that President Trump’s trade war is also an attack on WTO rules.He says the European democratic model is as under threat from “foreign interference, information manipulation, domination of minds by negative emotions and addictions to social media”.UPDATE: Macron said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China
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