{"id":4446,"date":"2026-09-17T09:49:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/politics-home-uk-diplomats-sought-to-reassure-us-over-tech-policy-before-burnham-became-pm\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:49:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:49:32","slug":"politics-home-uk-diplomats-sought-to-reassure-us-over-tech-policy-before-burnham-became-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/politics-home-uk-diplomats-sought-to-reassure-us-over-tech-policy-before-burnham-became-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics Home | UK Diplomats Sought To Reassure US Over Tech Policy Before Burnham Became PM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n 2 min read<\/span>25 min<\/span>
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British diplomats sought to reassure Trump officials Andy Burnham wouldn\u2019t target US tech firms days before he became Prime Minister, PoliticsHome can reveal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

According to sources familiar with the discussions, British officials said at a meeting in July Burnham would not launch a \u201cclamp down\u201d on social media in tech, with Burnham focused on economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The diplomats said Burnham was aware of the British reliance on US tech firms for growth, as seen in the UK\u2019s response to the Defence Investment Plan. British Ambassador to the US Christian Turner sought to reassure US diplomats that any changes from recent legislation would likely not happen quickly, with the Online Safety Act taking nearly a decade from concept to implementation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In spite of the meeting, earlier this week\u00a0PoliticsHome reported that British officials were hauled in to\u00a0the US embassy on Monday and dressed down over the Online Safety Act, along with their plans to ban under-16s from social media and prioritise public broadcasters\u2019 prominence online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the earlier meeting in July, it is understood Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers warned the UK against overregulating AI, saying chatbots would become \u201clobotomized\u201d if overregulated, and that users would assume they were government propaganda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The officials said that anti-tech big tech politicians were \u201cnot on the same page\u201d as Burnham, comparing him to vice-president JD Vance due to his focus on marginalised communities.<\/p>\n

A UK government source told PoliticsHome that the major risks from AI crossed borders, and therefore engaging with international partners was of the upmost importance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Separately, the UK\u2019s Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Collins also held talks with the US\u00a0Office for Science and Technology Policy about reviving the UK\u2019s Tech Prosperity Deal with the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the deal was initially signed in September last year, Sir Keir Starmer highlighted the deal as \u201ca generational step change in our relationship with the US\u201d during Donald Trump\u2019s state visit. However, the deal was ultimately suspended by Washington months later, with officials saying the UK had made insufficient progress in lowering trade barriers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of yet, publicly, no progress has been made in restarting the deal, but privately PoliticsHome understands discussions are ongoing. A UK government source said that the UK would continue to engage on issues like the Tech Prosperity Deal in the near future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A UK government spokesperson said: “As close allies, UK and US officials meet regularly to discuss shared priorities. We are committed to ensuring that our trade and security continues to deliver real benefits for hardworking people on both sides of the Atlantic.”<\/p>\n

The US State Department was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

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2 min read25 min British diplomats sought to reassure Trump officials Andy Burnham wouldn\u2019t target US tech firms days before he became Prime Minister, PoliticsHome can reveal. According to sources familiar with the discussions, British officials said at a meeting in July Burnham would not launch a \u201cclamp down\u201d on social media in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}