Liz Kendall

Liz Kendall launched the UK Sovereign AI Fund on 16 April 2026, telling an audience that AI was 'non-negotiable for our national security' and that the independent investment committee would operate free from political interference . She framed the £500m fund — chaired by Balderton Capital's James Wise with Josephine Kant as Head of Ventures — as the UK betting on its own AI ecosystem rather than ceding the model layer to US providers.

Kendall entered Parliament as MP for Leicester West in 2010 and served as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions before Labour's 2024 general election victory. She was appointed Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology in July 2024, taking over a department responsible for the AI Safety Institute, spectrum regulation, space policy, and now the Sovereign AI programme. Her REMIT spans industrial AI strategy, digital infrastructure, and UK alignment on international AI governance.

On 18 May 2026, Kendall appeared at the Institute for the Future of Work conference to announce the AI and Future of Work Unit — a cross-government body spanning DSIT, DWP, DfE, BEIS, and HM Treasury, targeting 10 million people upskilled in AI by 2030 with 2 million inside SMEs and free course access. The framing was explicit: the UK would not be a 'bystander' to AI-driven labour market disruption. That same week, Kendall's DSIT co-funded a £36m expansion of the DAWN supercomputer at Cambridge, flagged the AI Hardware Plan for London Tech Week (9-12 June), and published open eligibility criteria for the Sovereign AI Unit's Strategic Assets Grants Programme. Across May 2026, Kendall is the single most active individual in UK AI policy, spanning compute infrastructure, social policy, and industrial investment in the same fortnight.