Alex Brummer: Britain must embrace AI and homegrown growth, not seek a return to an inflexible Europe

Alex Brummer's column makes a compact case for Britain to double down on technological and domestic reforms rather than pursuing renewed closeness with the EU as a growth cure.

He rejects the idea that Brexit alone sank the UK economy. Brummer points to large external shocks — the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, the Russian war on Ukraine and sustained Middle East turmoil since October 2023 — as more responsible for disrupted growth. He notes GDP per capita growth in Britain has tracked France and outpaced Germany since Brexit, and that exports are up 21 percent since the pandemic.

Brummer identifies the UK's comparative advantage as a lighter, services- and knowledge-led economy. He lists pharma, Relx and the London Stock Exchange Group as emblematic of that sector. But he warns that the same knowledge economy is highly susceptible to AI disruption: data centres, AI models and firms such as Anthropic could reshape where value is captured.

Policy priorities he recommends are practical and domestic.

• Planning and housing reform: Faster delivery of homes matters more than simply allocating funding. He cites housing minister Angela Rayner's willingness to approve controversial projects and warns that commercial developers, housing associations and councils can block delivery or scale back targets.

• Fixing bond market turmoil and high debt service costs: Surging mortgage and debt interest bills are weakening households and builders alike.

• Incentives to retain innovators: Brummer supports generous tax and other incentives to keep companies in the UK and praises the Business Secretary's reported decision against an exit tax for departing businesses.

• Use of the National Security & Investment Act: He argues for targeted use of the law to fend off overseas buyers that could strip strategic assets.

• Embrace AI while managing risk: He calls for welcoming AI as essential to staying ahead of an increasingly sclerotic European bloc, while acknowledging the discomfort of imagining data centres and AI models as central to future prosperity.

Brummer highlights specific UK capabilities worth defending and growing: Cambridge-area defence and avionics firms developing AI-driven interceptors, the country's strong avionics and defence tech base, and datacentre capacity. He urges policy that keeps those capabilities onshore and encourages innovation rather than driving firms away with unfriendly tax or regulation.

In short, the column argues for a pragmatic, inward-focused growth agenda: adapt to AI, reform housing and planning to unblock supply, stabilise borrowing costs, and use targeted industrial and security policy to retain high-value firms. Brummer's message is that structural domestic change and technology adoption will matter more for future prosperity than political realignment with Brussels.