{"id":474880,"date":"2026-03-14T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474880\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:07:07","slug":"nhs-and-mod-will-be-urged-to-buy-british-tech-to-drive-growth-amid-iran-crisis-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474880\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS and MoD will be urged to buy British tech to drive growth amid Iran crisis | Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHS and Ministry of Defence<\/a> will be urged to buy British tech, as the government pins its hopes on the benefits of artificial intelligence to kickstart growth in the face of the Iran crisis, Treasury minister Spencer Livermore has said.<\/p>\n

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will restate her economic strategy in a high profile lecture on Tuesday, just as rocketing oil prices<\/a> have raised fears of higher inflation and weaker growth.<\/p>\n

Livermore, who works closely with Reeves on policy, said the chancellor will highlight three strategic choices \u2013 to get closer to the EU, to strengthen regional policy in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and by better connecting Northern cities; and to bet big on the benefits of AI.<\/p>\n

On AI, Livermore said Reeves is keen to \u201cset out the optimistic case\u201d, despite growing fears about the potential impact of the technology for jobs<\/a>, particularly among young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are massive opportunities here and I think that\u2019s what we want to try to talk about,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly we want to be one of the fastest adopters in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s really important that we talk about the huge opportunities for the economy and the amount of growth that we can get. And if we get more growth, then we\u2019ll have more jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour has been criticised for its cosy relationships with US big tech<\/a> firms such as the controversial Palantir, which has a contract with the NHS. Meanwhile, a recent Guardian analysis<\/a> showed that AI deals announced with fanfare by the government over the past two years have not yet delivered concrete investment.<\/p>\n

Livermore said ministers are keen to use government budgets to support homegrown tech firms, which are often excluded by bureaucracy or institutional caution. \u201cThe UK government is too slow to buy new technologies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to set up a rapid innovation procurement taskforce, outside the traditional procurement system. And we\u2019re going to pilot that in defence and in health, so that we can get the state to buy new technologies quicker. And that is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf you think about AI and the speed with which technology is changing, we\u2019re very rarely the first customer for those companies. That\u2019s got to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also suggested Labour has become increasingly prepared to make the argument for a closer trading relationship with the EU \u2013 though without crossing its manifesto red lines, which included no free movement of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences of Brexit are showing to be worse even than people thought at the time. And I think this government does now have the confidence to be very honest about that, to confront that,\u201d he said, calling for a \u201cfact-based conversation\u201d about the issue.<\/p>\n

Challenged about the damage likely to be inflicted on the economy and public finances if the Middle East conflict proves prolonged, Livermore, who was an adviser to Gordon Brown in the New Labour years, insisted: \u201cThe fundamentals of the economy were strong, going into this uncertain period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking before the latest official data showed zero GDP growth in January<\/a>, he highlighted Reeves\u2019s repair job on the public finances, and the cost of living measures in the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spring forecast [on 3 March] was perfectly timed as a sort of backdrop to the strong fundamentals that we had going into the crisis \u2013 we had inflation lower than it otherwise would have been, because of the action we\u2019d taken, gilt yields had been falling, we\u2019d actually increased the amount of headroom in the spring forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I know we\u2019d take decisions which Rachel was fiercely criticised for in the previous two budgets, but were absolutely the right decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member of the \u201cIran Board\u201d Reeves has set up inside the Treasury, he said ministers and officials are drawing up measures to ensure they are \u201cequipped for whatever scenario comes our way\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Livermore insisted the crisis only reinforced the need for Reeves\u2019s approach of \u201csecuronomics\u201d, which he described as \u201can active and strategic state. And a state that has a point of view\u201d \u2013 choosing which sectors and regions to back with public money, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, the impact in terms of the British economy will depend on the severity and the duration of this crisis, and no one knows what that is,\u201d he conceded. \u201cWe are doing the right things in the Treasury to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHS and Ministry of Defence will be urged to buy British tech, as the government pins its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-474880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}