Kanishka Narayan
UK Labour MP; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Online Safety at DSIT.
Narayan's AI brief survived DSIT's abolition on 20 July 2026 intact, now split across two departments instead of one, five days after a public rebuke over Britain's sovereignty strategy from a rival executive.
Last refreshed: 26 July 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
Is Kanishka Narayan defending a real UK AI strategy or stitching together ad hoc commitments?
Timeline for Kanishka Narayan
Became Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence from 20 July
European Tech Sovereignty: Britain abolishes DSIT, splits its remit three waysTold City A.M. Britain is pursuing global AI leadership, not Silicon Valley emulation
UK Startups and Innovation: Narayan and Harms split on sovereigntyAnnounced the SOFAIR and BOLD lab launch on 23 June 2026
UK Startups and Innovation: EPSRC doubles AI-lab spend to £60mConfirmed AI Growth Zones priority access, electricity discounts, and self-build rights on 11 March
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: UK Gate 2 grid offers begin issuingMentioned in: Sovereign AI unit backs Alphabet-owned lab
UK Startups and InnovationBackground
Narayan is Labour MP for Vale of Glamorgan, elected in July 2024, and became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of state for AI and Online Safety at DSIT in September 2025. Born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, in 1989, he moved to Cardiff at 12 and became Wales' first ethnic-minority MP. He attended Eton College on a scholarship, read PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, took an MBA at Stanford, and worked as a civil servant and in private-sector financial advisory before entering politics.
In May 2026 he answered Commons SIT Committee chair Chi Onwurah's charge that his sovereignty letter "fails to set out a coherent strategy" by pointing to the £500m Sovereign AI Unit and a proposed advanced market commitment for AI hardware.
He remains the minister answering for UK AI industrial policy against claims that it is fragmented and under-funded relative to EU and US commitments, a role he has now carried across the abolition of the department that originally housed it.
He keeps the brief through reorganisation
On 15 July, Narayan told City A.M. that Britain wants global AI leadership rather than to copy Silicon Valley, deflecting scrutiny over whether the £500m Sovereign AI Unit amounts to a strategy. Quantexa's John Harms replied that sovereignty means governance control and data portability, not just UK-based hardware, the same week the Unit's stake in CuspAI bought presence rather than control.
Five days later DSIT was dissolved around him, yet his own brief did not move: he continues to answer for AI policy, only now from a post that straddles two departments rather than one. What his new title carries, and whether it still brings him into the room where full Cabinet meets, is not something the public record has yet spelled out.
Why is Chi Onwurah criticising Kanishka Narayan over AI strategy?
What is the UK's advanced market commitment for AI hardware?
Who is Kanishka Narayan and what is his role in UK AI policy?
