SME4Labour at Labour Party Conference

Monday 28 September 2026 · ACC Liverpool

Calls for a national conversation on AI based on trust, skills and sharing the gains

Speakers at a full-house SME4Labour fringe said AI can already improve public services, but that trust, digital inclusion and fair sharing of the benefits must come first.

AI can already improve public services, but trust, digital inclusion and a fair share of the gains must be tackled first, speakers told a packed fringe at Labour's conference.

The session, AI for Public Good: Harnessing Technology for Better Public Services, was held by SME4Labour on Monday 28 September. It was chaired by Feryal Clark MP, Labour MP for Enfield North. She asked each speaker for one practical example of where AI is already making a difference, and one area for development.

The panel brought together:

• Vicki Sellick, Chief Executive of Good Things Foundation
• Dave Robertson MP, Labour MP for Lichfield
• Neil Duncan-Jordan MP, Labour MP for Poole
• Dan Price, Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire and Labour's candidate for the Cheshire and Warrington mayoralty
• Jason Kennedy, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Skyral
• Anneliese Dodds MP, Labour MP for Oxford East

Trust and inclusion

Sellick said many people are fearful of AI. They ask whether they can trust the information it gives, she said, and what will happen to their data. The digital inclusion gap had been getting smaller, but has now taken a leap in the wrong direction. Only around a third of people, she said, feel comfortable online. She called for a national conversation and for confidence to be given to citizens and public servants alike.

Practical gains

Robertson said Lichfield has the fastest broadband in the country. He described how an AI tool built by a company in his constituency has sped up sign-off of police overtime forms in Warwickshire. As a result, he said, more officers are out on the streets stopping crime.

Price said his office is developing AI agents to automate tasks people should not be spending time on. If public bodies do not do this, he warned, the services people rely on will be lost. He also said the UK should keep control of data centre technology at home rather than subcontracting it to other countries.

Another contributor said that, used properly, AI can make public services more accessible, but humans need to stay in the loop and understand what the systems are doing.

Energy and opportunity

One speaker raised the energy and water demands of data centres, and said countries should come together to minimise their carbon footprint. Kennedy said the UK can steal a march as Europe's leading place to build a tech centre, drawing on its soft power. AI is not going away, he said, so the UK should change the conversation on procurement and embrace the technology.

Sharing the gains

Duncan-Jordan described AI as a new industrial revolution, but said only 7 per cent of the public believe the gains will be shared equally. He said the government should look at raising the digital services tax, possibly to 5 per cent, and extending it to AI companies, alongside an employer levy. Trade unions must be part of workplace discussions, he said. He called for a people-first AI strategy and a global treaty on what AI can and cannot be used for. Big tech, he said, should not be allowed to mark its own homework.