In a parliamentary back and forth, the technology secretary strongly refuted the suggestion from his shadow cabinet counterpart that the scrapped project is a victim of the government’s ‘failed economic experiment’
Labour and Conservative MPs have clashed over the funding of Edinburgh University’s exascale supercomputer.
The project was scrapped last August, after the Labour government shelved £1.3bn in funding for technology programmes, claiming it was part of “unfunded commitments” by its predecessors. But the Conservatives have repeatedly denied the allegation.
During an exchange in the House of Commons, shadow technology secretary Alan Mak said: “Labour have cancelled Britain’s new national supercomputer at Edinburgh University, damaging our research capability and economic growth. The project was fully funded by the Conservatives, and the university says it will be a disaster if the cancellation isn’t reversed. So, will the government reinstate that supercomputer, or will it be another victim of the chancellor’s failed economic experiment?”
However, Labour’s incumbent technology secretary Kyle said the “money never existed” and that the Conservatives had “let the country down” with unfunded commitments.
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Kyle said: “A the secretary of state, I came in and one of the first decisions I had to take was how we look at an unfunded commitment for hundreds of millions of pounds, where the money never existed, the Treasury had not committed it, and not a single letter of writing going to my department from the Treasury – and yet years of commitments verbally from this government.”
Mak then urged the government to increase spending on the technology sector, to keep pace with international competitors. It comes after the government confirmed UK Research and Innovation’s budget would be cut by £300m in 2025-2026.
Kyle said the development of a “fully funded” compute strategy that was “fit for purpose” is underway but stopped short of announcing when it would be published.
In September, speaking at the Public Sector, Cloud Infrastructure & AI conference hosted by PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood, David Ferguson, head of data at industry membership body Scotland IS, said the loss of the project would have a “knock-on effect right across the technology sector”.
He told delegates: “It’s really important that we look to try and champion and refocus the government’s decision to move that.”
This story originally appeared on PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood
