UK Minister Backs Universal Basic Income as AI Job Losses Accelerate

AI's relentless march is hollowing out the workforce—and a senior UK minister just threw political weight behind a radical solution.

The UBI Gambit

Forget retraining programs. The proposal gaining traction is direct, unconditional cash payments—a universal basic income. It’s a direct response to automation’s appetite for white-collar and blue-collar jobs alike. The logic is brutal: if machines generate the wealth, maybe they should fund the safety net.

The Finance Sector's Cynical Calculus

Meanwhile, traditional finance watches from the sidelines, tweaking spreadsheets. The idea of distributing capital directly to the public, bypassing banks and asset managers, gives the old guard heartburn. It’s almost as disruptive as the technology causing the job losses in the first place—a delicious irony for anyone tired of quarterly earnings calls about 'efficiency gains.'

The debate is no longer theoretical. The question isn't if AI will displace, but how fast. And the proposed fix is as simple as it is revolutionary: cut the check.

Warnings mount over AI employment impact

“Undoubtedly we’re going to have to think really carefully about how we soft-land those industries that go away, so some sort of [universal basic income], some sort of life-long mechanism as well so people can retrain,” he said.

While UBI hasn’t been adopted as official government policy yet, Stockwood confirmed that when asked whether his colleagues in government were thinking about the need for such a scheme, “people are definitely talking about it.”

Stockwood explained that one reason he decided to take the position was to make sure the government was getting ready for the fast-moving changes coming to Britain and its workers. His remarks came during the same week that the head of Anthropic issued a warning about “unusually painful” disruption to employment as AI was a “general labour substitute for humans”.

London mayor Sadiq Khan also raised concerns this month about a possible “new era of mass unemployment” brought on by AI. Technology secretary Liz Kendall said on Wednesday that “some jobs will go” because of AI, pointing to early worries about entry-level positions in finance and law.

Kendall maintained that “more jobs will be created than will go, but I’m not complacent about that.” She promised the government would support people through the transition. “We will not leave individuals and communities to cope on their own.” Stockwood has floated the idea before that technology firms could be hit with a windfall levy to pay for UBI schemes.

Political outlook and market stability

Stockwood revealed to FT that he used his first week as a minister saying sorry for remarks he’d made before joining government and hasn’t repeated his push for additional wealth taxes.

But he maintained, “If you make your money and the first thing you do is you speak to a tax adviser to ask ‘where can we pay the lowest tax’, we don’t want those people in this country, I’d suggest, because you’re not committed to your communities and the long-term success in this country.”

Despite this stance, Stockwood was in Davos recently with global business leaders, encouraging investors and wealth creators to choose the UK. “Investors can look at us as a SAFE haven, relative to the chaos in politics which we witnessed first hand last week.” He noted US investors were “shell-shocked” about Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland.

Promoting the UK’s stability becomes harder when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer must constantly dismiss leadership speculation, including questions about Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester mayor. Stockwood stressed he wanted Starmer to lead Labour into the next general election, despite calling Burnham “brilliant.”

“What we need now is stability … the most important thing for us is not sending political chaos into our system.”

He acknowledged Reform UK was drawing support from both his business and investor contacts. Stockwood said the government must better demonstrate to regular people how they’ll gain from its growth plans and trade agreements.

The prospect of a Reform government “leaves me in a cold sweat,” he said, criticizing Reform’s proposal to put business leaders in cabinet roles as an “absolute disaster” because running government wasn’t only about “deals and trades.”

He’s already discovered that business is simpler than politics. “I’ve been a CEO of a thousand people, I thought I ran a relatively complex operation, but it’s an absolute walk in the park compared to government.”

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