Kemi Badenoch, the newly chosen leader of the Conservative Party, has chosen the members of her frontbench, the MPs who will sit opposite the Labour government in parliament for the foreseeable future.
Theoretically, the members of Badenoch’s Shadow Cabinet will mirror their Labour counterparts for the next five years – though there will likely be a reshuffle or two in that time, and the possibility of the government calling an early election can never be ruled out in British politics.
The Shadow Cabinet’s role is, as its name suggests, to ‘shadow’ and scrutinise the policies of their counterparts in government. In Badenoch’s cabinet, there are three Secretaries the UK payments and fintech sectors could benefit from keeping an eye on.
Meet Stride, Griffith and Mak
Firstly is Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Mel Stride, the MP for Central Devon. Stride will mirror the movements of Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of the most important people in PM Keir Staarmer’s government.
The appointment comes just under a week after Reeves unveiled her first budget as UK Chancellor. This saw the government plan to raise £40bn through taxation, primarily of businesses, to reinvest in public developments.
The government has also pledged funding for research however – this could have a bearing on fintech as research projects in areas like Open Banking and Artificial Intelligence (AI) could stand to benefit.
Stride will also likely keep a close eye on HM Treasury’s other fiscal ambitions under Labour. These policies include the creation of a £70bn growth fund for Britain and newly granted powers for banks to prevent fraud.
The second and third appointments fintech should bear in mind are Andrew Griffith MP and Alan Mak MP. Starting with Griffith, the MP for Arundel and South Downs has been named Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade, shadowing Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds.
Griffith will monitor Reynolds developments in a few areas relating to payments and fintech. This includes the Labour politician’s remit for domestic and international businesses, regulation and deregulation, international trade agreements, and import and export policies.
However, Alan Mak’s role will probably be of more significance to fintech, at least for now due to the legislative activity of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (SIT), under Secretary of State Peter Kyle.
SIT has sponsored two prominent bills relating to payments in the four months since Labour took office. The first of these was the Smart Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, which looks to set up Smart Data schemes – key to Labour’s vision for UK Open Banking and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – as well as reviving digital IDs.
This was followed by the Data Use and Access Bill launched to the House of Lords last month. One of the Bill’s objectives is to create ‘the right conditions’ for Open Banking, which the government believes will play a pivotal role in driving Britain’s economy forward.
As Shadow Tech Secretary, Mak will likely play a key role in scrutinising and criticising bills such as these, as well as any other legislation with significance for tech, fintech and finance that Labour may have.
