Labour will make AI ‘work for the workers’, says Liz Kendall
Liz Kendall says Labour will shape AI to protect workers, expand training, and target support at young people and disadvantaged areas.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The technology secretary is pitching a Labour approach to AI that pairs adoption with worker protection, skills training, and help for young people at risk of leaving education or work behind. She also wants Britain to shape AI’s rollout instead of letting big tech set the terms.
This story says the government wants AI to be more like a helpful tool than a job-stealing machine. It is setting up classes and summer camps so young people can learn new skills, like giving them a ladder instead of leaving them to jump on their own.
Analysis
Labour’s message on AI
Liz Kendall is trying to frame AI as something government can guide rather than simply endure. Her central claim is that Labour should make AI improve work, while also helping people through the transition if jobs change or disappear.
Training and young workers
The article says she has adjusted the £187m TechFirst AI training scheme so that 40% of the 1 million children it aims to reach will be in disadvantaged schools. She also highlighted two small pilot schemes in the north-east and north-west of England, designed as summer skills camps for young people who are not in education, employment or training, or who are at risk of becoming so. Those places are limited at first, but the government expects the programmes to be scaled up and linked to apprenticeship routes.
The broader policy context
Kendall is presenting AI as a general-purpose technology that will create some jobs, change others, and remove some altogether. That is a more measured message than a promise of frictionless growth, and it lines up with concerns in the article about youth unemployment and the IMF’s warning that AI could hit labour markets hard, especially for younger people.
The story also shows the government trying to balance several pressures at once: backing British AI firms, supporting NHS digitisation, and deciding how hard to regulate children’s online lives, including chatbots and age-verification issues. The thread running through all of it is that ministers want to be active participants in AI’s rollout, not passive observers.
Key points
- Kendall says Labour will make AI serve workers rather than leave people to cope alone.
- The government has redirected the TechFirst AI training scheme toward disadvantaged schools.
- Two small summer skills pilot programmes are being launched for young people at risk of becoming NEET.
- Kendall says AI will create some jobs, change others, and eliminate some, as past general-purpose technologies have done.
- The article ties AI policy to wider debates about NHS digitisation, British AI firms, and children’s online safety.
If the training scheme reaches more disadvantaged schools and the pilot camps grow into a wider programme, more young people could gain useful skills and a route into apprenticeships. That would make AI’s impact feel less one-sided and give more places a share in the benefits.
The first rounds of support are still small, so they may not be enough if AI-driven disruption to entry-level work grows quickly. If the training and apprenticeship pipeline expands too slowly, the young people Kendall wants to help could still end up exposed to the downside of automation.
