If any politician is in need of good press, it is Sir Keir Starmer, whose net favourability rating fell to -46 last month, the worst score ever recorded by a YouGov poll.
On social media it is hard to find a good word about the Prime Minister, as his reputation is derided in turn by right-wingers and disenchanted voices on Labour’s left. He is subject to vile abuse and wild conspiracy theories about his personal life, which tech oligarchs allow to run unchecked on their platforms.
Starmer appeared to recognise the importance of professionally produced news and analysis when, last October, he wrote an op-ed in which he declared that “journalism is the lifeblood of democracy” and that “this is a government that will always champion press freedoms”.
In words giving succour to an industry that worries Big Tech is stealing its content to train its AI models, he promised: “We recognise the basic principle that publishers should have control over and seek payment for their work, including when thinking about the role of AI.”
But the pledge sounded hollow last week as Starmer told delegates at London Tech Week: “AI and tech makes us more human.” Seeing a driver in economic growth, Labour wants AI to be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation. The PM argues that we must “take action to win the global race [in AI]”.
But that ambition to compete with AI leaders such as the US is a “total fiction,” argues Emer Coleman, formerly of the Government Digital Service. “This is insanity,” she writes in a piece for Computer Weekly. “There is absolutely no way the UK can compete with such deep pockets despite all the rhetoric.”
While claiming to champion a free press, ministers threaten the news media and other creative sectors that fear losing copyright to AI, including music and film. “The Government is essentially colonising its own cultural industries,” writes Coleman.
On Thursday, the controversial Data (Use and Access) Bill was passed despite opposition from creatives including Sir Elton John, who complained that AI firms were “committing theft, thievery on a high scale”. Attempts in the House of Lords to amend the bill to force AI firms to declare their use of copyrighted material were refused by the Government.
Media companies have felt a need to seek justice. In a landmark case that began last week at the High Court, the photo agency Getty Images is suing Stability AI for copyright and trademark infringement in the training of its image generation model.
Labour’s relationship with media is complicated. In government, it has always had to contend with a national press that mostly leans right. Downing Street’s refusal to hold a second part of the Leveson inquiry shows its wariness of antagonising old Fleet Street. Yet Starmer is in dire need of greater public trust and, when the socials are loaded against him, that depends on his profile in mainstream media.
That challenge was recognised by the Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, last week in a keynote speech to the Media & Telecoms 2025 and Beyond Conference, when she identified “trust” as the “one issue above many others” she wished to discuss. News coverage that “builds a shared understanding of the world” was needed, rather than that which “helps to polarise and divide”.
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Nandy is a well-placed cheerleader for quality journalism. Her mother, Luise Nandy, was head of news at Granada Television and her stepfather, Ray Fitzwalter, was editor of ITV’s World in Action documentary strand. She told the industry it was “too important to fail” and claimed that the Online Safety Act and National Committee for the Safety of Journalists were evidence that the Government values strong media. Promising delegates that a further “series of roundtables” would be held on AI and copyright, she assured them: “We have your back.”
Nandy’s problem is that, for all the creative sector’s economic clout, media is not a priority for a government focused on defence, healthcare and embracing Big Tech. That is clear from a new directive from the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, who is cutting funding for journalism courses in higher education, with money redirected to Stem subjects and nursing.
As a result, the news media will become even harder for young people to access and less representative of the population. By sending the signal that journalism is not valued as a career path, the Government is driving talent away from the industry.
This is dangerous mixed messaging from a government that is fighting for credibility after the winter fuel payments fiasco. If Starmer is to win voter trust, he must stop prostrating before Silicon Valley and show he is unafraid of truth by being a friend to news.
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