ANDY Burnham – who is likely to be the next prime minister – will support the development of new AI data centres in the UK despite widespread community backlash and the potential of immense environmental impacts, it is understood.
Burnham's team is preparing to overhaul Westminster's AI policy to limit the involvement of foreign-owned technology in the public sector and growing AI infrastructure network.
One insider privy to the plans told the Financial Times (FT) that "we do need data centres, but we need to think about who runs and owns those data centres. There has to be a framework for accountability and making sure that 100% of data centres aren’t owned by foreign companies.”
It comes after a Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) committee report warned of the "concerning" reliance the UK Government has on foreign tech and AI companies, chiefly the IDF-linked spy-tech firm Palantir.
Disgraced former US ambassador Peter Mandelson was a leading figure in connecting outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Palantir, and other firms. Global Counsel, a lobbying firm Mandelson part-owns and co-founded, also works with Palantir.
The source close to Burnham's AI plans noted that the current government’s courting of US tech companies had been a “geopolitical failure that hasn’t delivered on its intended aims [and has] also put the Labour Government at odds with its voters and the vast majority of the British public”.
According to the FT, Burnham has called in former technology minister Josh Simons, who quit as an MP in Makerfield to make way for the former Manchester mayor's return to Westminster, and various AI researchers to lead efforts to alter the Government's AI policy.
Simons had previously falsely accused journalists of having links to pro-Russian propaganda when he was boss of a Labour think tank. A probe was launched into his conduct after it emerged that while he was head of Labour Together the think tank had ordered an investigation into journalists who had reported on its funding.
Burnham's ambition is reportedly to limit foreign ownership of AI data centres in the UK, ensuring they work in the interests of the British public. However, his openness to further development, regardless of who owns the sites, comes amid widespread community and environmental backlash.
Two Scottish councils have now called on the Scottish Government, which holds devolved control over planning law, to implement a moratorium – a temporary ban – on new data centre developments until strict environmental regulations are in place.
A primary concern raised by local activists and environmental groups is the reliance data centres have on fossil fuel-run generators, chiefly gas and diesel. While developers claim the sites will run on renewable energy, backup generators are likely to be required to a 24/7 service provision when sources like solar and wind energy fluctuate.
Further concerns have been raised about local democracy, with communities facing either a lack of information, as not all projects are mandated to provide Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), or are being overrun with paperwork with a short window to scrutinise hundreds of pages worth of EIA information.
Julian Leslie, the director of strategic planning at Neso said this gas buildout could complicate Britain’s climate goals.
“The target was to get less than 5% of unabated gas supplying electricity in the system,” he said.
“But obviously if we’ve got datacentres not connected to electricity but powered by unabated gas then it does raise an interesting question about what that means for the Clean Power 2030 target.”
Dr Kat Jones, the director of environmental campaign group Action to Protect Rural Scotland (APRS) previously described the data centre push as existing in a "parallel reality" where climate change wasn't impacting everyday life.
She said: “Those promoting the rush for hyperscale AI datacentres seem to be living in a parallel reality where the last 50 years of climate science hasn’t happened, and where we aren’t already experiencing the signs of climate breakdown.”
She the energy industry appears to be "taking it for granted that onsite gas generation would be needed if these ultra energy intensive developments are to happen, due to the impossibility of connecting them to our congested grid.”
In Scotland, APRS analysis of a proposed data centre in South Gyle, Edinburgh, found that its on-site backup generators, which would use diesel, would lead to a fuel usage equivalent to over 100,000 cars idling. The site's carbon output was also be more than 200,000 tonnes per year, according to developers Shelborne Drummond, a total equivalent to a second Edinburgh Airport.
While raising concerns about a proposed site in Aberdeenshire, which would demand a "multi-gigawatts" energy supply, Jones added that "North Sea renewable energy is supposed to be decarbonising the UK rather than being brought, by direct wire, to a humongous AI data centre to train large language models for US tech companies.
"This proposal is so large it will likely require its own gas electricity generation for when the wind turbines aren't turning."
Thousands of concerned locals have signed petitions against data centre proposals in Larbert (Falkirk), Auchtertool (Fife) and the Lammermuir Hills (Borders). Earlier this week, protesters, including singer Susan Boyle, turned out near the development site in Larbert to draw attention to the issue ahead of the closing of the council's objection window at midnight on Thursday.
Around Auchtertool local residents have set up banners, posters and information flyers calling on the rejection of the planned centre that would dwarf the small village in size. The deadline to comment on the proposal has recently been extended to July 24 due to an error in the council's online system.
