Clive Lewis MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, responding to the Prime Minister’s speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, said:

“While I welcome the Government’s commitment to start reversing the decline in Research and Development (R&D) spend, this is woefully inadequate and risks being too little too late.

“And it comes on the same day that the Prime Minister announced she is ditching her flagship policy to put workers on company boards - just one month after committing to it. Tory promises don’t last until Christmas.

“Britain has been falling short of other countries’ R&D spend for years, something reflected in our long-term productivity problem. With even the Chancellor admitting that the economy is in for a rough time as we navigate Brexit, and the future of EU-backed science funding now in question, it has never been more important for Government to be stoking the flames of innovation by committing significant public backing to R&D. But today’s commitment will leave us well below the OECD average, and well below the 3 percent of GDP that the OECD recommends. 

“This is a disappointing attempt to undo six wasted years of Tory Government.”