The UK will surrender its right to set its own tech laws. Will the EU follow?
On the sidelines of Donald Trump's unprecedented second state visit to the UK today, he will sign a tech pact with Keir Starmer that trades sovereignty for US investment.
The United Kingdom is rolling out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump today, making good on Keir Starmer’s invitation during his grovelling White House visit in February. A second state visit is an honour never extended to any US president before. Trump will be escorted in a royal carriage heralded by three separate military bands and escorted by riders on horseback to Windsor Castle to meet King Charles III, after having already met Charles’ mother during his first term. Last month Trump claimed that European leaders jokingly told him he’s now the “President of Europe.” It’s unclear if Starmer was one of those leaders, but Trump sure does seem to be cosplaying as the King of England at the moment. And with the way UK and EU leaders have been prostrating themselves before him, his characterisation may not be far from the truth.
On the sidelines of this visit, Starmer and Trump will sign a “technology pact” which says that the American big tech companies will make significant investments in rolling out their technologies across Britain. It is only a few pages long, but its implications could be profound. Because in exchange for the investment, it is implicit that the UK will roll back the UK technology regulations (laws meant to protect citizens) that the American big tech companies and the US government have been railing against for the past months.
Just look at the people who will be joining Trump in his entourage, and the powerful forces behind this pact become clear. OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang will all be with Trump in London. Nvidia is expected to announce an investment in Britain’s biggest data centre planned for Blyth in Northeast England, while Blackstone is expected to announce a partnership with OpenAI for a project being touted as the “British Stargate”.
Starmer has already signalled that he is willing to change UK tech law to suit Washington’s interests, and the pact seems to make this a foregone conclusion. Though he has defended the UK’s Online Safety Act and the Digital Services Tax that has come in for particular criticism from America, he has gone quiet on them of late as the pact paves the way for their dissolution. Gaia Marcus, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute think tank, told Politico this week that what’s being described as an investment pact could actually be a submission to tech vassalage. "The public deserves to understand who really benefits from these partnerships and what the return will be for taxpayers in years to come," she said. "We mustn't just focus on what the figures look like today, if the cost is technological lock-in tomorrow, limiting our ability to seek alternatives in the future."
Even more worrying, White House sources have said that the intent here isn’t just to get a veto over the UK’s tech laws, but also to “expand the US-UK relationship as a means to counterbalance the EU - and I think that’s a big part of this trip.”