Discovering if people have cancer before it fully forms in the body so that they can be treated earlier is among the pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) research given a £20 million government cash boost today (Friday 27 November).

The prestigious Turing AI Acceleration Fellowships will give 15 of the UK’s top AI innovators the resources to drive forward their ground-breaking research from speeding up medical diagnosis to increasing workplace productivity. These pioneering projects could enable the UK to meet some of today’s most pressing challenges, such as reducing carbon emissions, while helping to transform industries across the UK economy, including healthcare, energy and transport.

Among the AI fellows being backed today is Professor Christopher Yau at The University of Manchester, who aims to use AI technology to predict the development of cancer before it has fully formed in the body and therefore improving on current methods. If successful, this ground-breaking technology will enable clinicians to track cancer more accurately and help them decide at an earlier stage what treatments patients require. This would increase the chances of saving lives as treatment is usually more successful when given earlier.

A range of other ground-breaking AI projects are set to benefit from this new support, including research into energy efficient data processing – which would support key sectors such as energy, healthcare and finance at a time when demand for data is growing exponentially. Additionally, the development of an “AI clinical colleague” could further support doctors by recommending the most effective drug prescriptions and doses for patients – and helping them decide the best course of action for recovery.

Science Minister, Amanda Solloway said:

The UK is the birthplace of artificial intelligence and we have a duty to equip the next generation of Alan Turings with the tools that will keep the UK at the forefront of this remarkable technological innovation.

The inspirational fellows we are backing today will use AI to tackle some of our greatest challenges head on, transforming how people live, work and communicate, cementing the UK’s status as a world leader in AI and data.

Digital Minister, Caroline Dinenage, said:

The UK is a nation of innovators and this government investment will help our talented academics use cutting-edge technology to improve people’s daily lives – from delivering better disease diagnosis to managing our energy needs.

The fellowships forms part of a major government investment in AI skills and research, including 16 Centres for Doctoral Training in AI and conversion courses to train the next generation of AI experts, announced by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October 2019.

Named after British AI pioneer Alan Turing, the £20 million fellowship scheme will be delivered by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute and Office for Artificial intelligence.

It follows the publication of the government’s ambitious research and development roadmap in June this year, which committed to investing in ground breaking research and supporting the UK’s risk takers to scale up their innovations.

EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Dame Lynn Gladden said:

The Turing AI Acceleration Fellowships will support some of our leading researchers to progress their careers and develop ground-breaking AI technologies with societal impact.

By enhancing collaboration between academia and industry and accelerating these transformative technologies they will help to maintain and build on the UK’s position as a world leader in AI.

Notes to editors

Some of the Turing AI Acceleration Fellows receiving investment today are listed below.

Dr Antonio Hurtado, University of Strathclyde

Dr Hurtado aims to meet the growing demand across the UK economy to process large volumes of data fast and efficiently, while minimising the energy required to do so. His AI technology will use laser light, similar to those used in supermarket checkouts, to perform complex tasks at ultrafast speed – from weather forecasting to processing images for medical diagnostics. Being able to perform these tasks at lightning speed, with minimal energy consumption, could help to transform industries such as energy, healthcare and finance, improving efficiency, while helping the UK to meet its net zero ambitions by 2050.

Professor Aldo Faisal, Imperial College London

Professor Faisal aims to relieve the pressures and workload on doctors and clinicians by developing an ‘AI clinical colleague’, which will be able to recommend medical interventions such as prescribing drugs or changing doses in a way that is understandable to decision makers, such as doctors, helping to them to make the best final decision on a course of action for a patient. This technology will use ‘reinforcement learning’, a form of machine learning that trains AI to make decisions, and could be used in other regulated sectors such as aerospace or energy, where there is a need for decision-making support.

Professor Damien Coyle, Ulster University

Professor Coyle aims to develop AI technology that will be play a crucial role in new forms of wearable neurotechnologies – devices which measure signals from the brain and enable their wearer to interact with technology without movement. By enabling communication between the brain and computers that do not rely on movement, this technology could help those who are unable to communicate following a serious injury or illness.

Dr Jeff Dalton, University of Glasgow

Dr Dalton aims to improve the capabilities and performance of virtual personal assistants. Currently, virtual assistants on the market are only capable of limited conversations, and their development is expensive. Dr Dalton will build advanced information assistants that can work with users more effectively, including asking questions back and forth, explaining their reasoning more clearly, and helping to solve complex information tasks, for example explaining the causes of climate change.

Additional quotes

Dr Jeff Dalton, University of Glasgow said:

Being awarded the Turing AI Acceleration fellowship is an incredible honour and we are very excited by the opportunity to accelerate progress on the next generation of virtual assistants that will transform our economy and society.

This award is key in building a world-leading research group in Scotland with state-of-the-art deep-learning hardware for conversational AI that will enable us to perform large-scale experiments on real-world datasets to maximize impact.

Professor Christopher Yau, University of Manchester said:

I am very excited to have been awarded this Fellowship which will enable me to conduct ground-breaking research at the intersection of genomics and artificial intelligence. Genomics will yield unprecedented amounts of data which necessitate the use of AI for their interpretation.

I will be developing novel clinical information systems to provide cancer patients and clinicians with the very best genomics-guided personalised care to improve treatment effectiveness and survival rates. I am especially pleased to be working with a range of project partners, including Ovarian Cancer Action, to ensure that my research is conducted in partnership with patients.

The new Fellows will join a cohort of five Turing AI Fellows that have previously been awarded and the Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowships due to be awarded in 2021. These fellowships are part of a major government investment in AI skills and research which also includes 16 UKRI Centres for Doctoral Training in AI announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The Turing AI Acceleration Fellowships are part of the government’s AI sector deal investment in Turing AI fellowships, recommended by the independent 2017 UK AI Review, whose report ‘Growing the artificial intelligence industry in the UK,’ was co-authored by Reguis Professor of Computer Science at Southampton, Dame Wendy Hall, and Jérôme Pesenti, now Vice President of AI at Facebook.

Applications were sought from a diverse pool of researchers to reflect the breadth of the AI ecosystem and a broad range of backgrounds and fields. Universities were required to use an inclusive approach in shortlisting their fellowship candidates and fellows will be required to do likewise in recruiting their research teams.

The Turing AI Acceleration Fellows are:

• Professor Damien Coyle, University of Ulster – AI for Intelligent Neurotechnology and Human-Machine Symbiosis
• Dr Jeff Dalton, University of Glasgow – Neural Conversational Information Seeking Assistant
• Dr Theo Damoulas, University of Warwick – Machine Learning Foundations of Digital Twins
• Professor Aldo Faisal, Imperial College – Reinforcement Learning for Healthcare
• Professor Yulan He, University of Warwick – Event-Centric Framework for Natural Language Understanding
• Dr Jose Miguel Hernandez Lobato, University of Cambridge – Machine Learning for Molecular Design
• Dr Antonio Hurtado, University of Strathclyde – PHOTONics for Ultrafast Artificial Intelligence
• Dr Per Lehre, University of Birmingham – Rigorous Time-Complexity Analysis of Co-evolutionary Algorithms
• Professor Giovanni Montana, University of Warwick – Advancing Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Sequential Decision Making in Real-World Applications
• Dr Christopher Nemeth, Lancaster University: Probabilistic Algorithms for Scalable and Computable Approaches to Learning (PASCAL)
• Dr Raul Santos-Rodriguez, University of Bristol – Interactive Annotations in AI
• Dr Sebastian Stein, University of Southampton – Citizen-Centric AI Systems
• Dr Ivan Tyukin, University of Leicester – Adaptive, Robust and Resilient AI Systems for the FuturE
• Dr Adrian Weller, University of Cambridge – Trustworthy Machine Learning
• Professor Christopher Yau, The University of Manchester – clinAIcan – Developing Clinical Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Cancer

Tech giants will be subject to a new regime to give consumers more choice and control over their data, help small businesses thrive, and ensure news outlets are not forced out by their bigger rivals.

A dedicated Digital Markets Unit, which will be set up within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), will work closely with regulators including Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office to introduce and enforce a new code to govern the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate the market, such as Google and Facebook, to ensure consumers and small businesses aren’t disadvantaged.

Online platforms bring huge benefits for businesses and society. Their services are making work easier and quicker and help people stay in touch with one another. Millions of people share creative content or advertise their small business’ goods online.

But there is growing consensus in the UK and abroad that the concentration of power amongst a small number of tech companies is curtailing growth in the tech sector, reducing innovation, and potentially having negative impacts on the people and businesses that rely on them.

The new code will set clear expectations for platforms that have considerable market power – known as strategic market status – over what represents acceptable behaviour when interacting with competitors and users.

Under the new code, platforms including those funded by digital advertising could be required to be more transparent about the services they provide and how they are using consumers’ data, give consumers a choice over whether to receive personalised advertising, and prevented from placing restrictions on their customers that make it hard for them to use rival platforms.

The new unit, which will begin work in April, could be given powers to suspend, block and reverse decisions of tech giants, order them to take certain actions to achieve compliance with the code, and impose financial penalties for non-compliance.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said:

Digital platforms like Google and Facebook make a significant contribution to our economy and play a massive role in our day-to-day lives – whether it’s helping us stay in touch with our loved ones, share creative content or access the latest news.

But the dominance of just a few big tech companies is leading to less innovation, higher advertising prices and less choice and control for consumers.

Our new, pro-competition regime for digital markets will ensure consumers have choice, and mean smaller firms aren’t pushed out.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

I’m unashamedly pro-tech and the services of digital platforms are positively transforming the economy – bringing huge benefits to businesses, consumers and society.

But there is growing consensus in the UK and abroad that the concentration of power among a small number of tech companies is curtailing growth of the sector, reducing innovation and having negative impacts on the people and businesses that rely on them. It’s time to address that and unleash a new age of tech growth.

Today’s proposals could also help give small businesses fair access to platform services including digital advertising, allowing them to grow their business’ online presence. The code could be used to ensure platforms are not applying unfair terms, conditions or policies to certain business customers, including news publishers.

Currently, dominant online platforms can impose terms on news publishers that limit their ability to monetise their content – severely impacting their ability to thrive.

The new code will govern commercial arrangements between publishers and platforms to help keep publishers in business – helping enhance the sustainability of high-quality online journalism and news publishing in the UK.

It will form a major part of the government’s work to support the sustainability of the UK’s world leading news publishing sector and make sure, as news moves ever more online, publishers get a fair deal from the platforms on which they rely.

The government has set out its plans to take forward the development of the new unit and code of conduct in its response to the market study it asked the CMA to produce on online platforms and digital marketing.

The Unit will be informed by the work of the Digital Markets Taskforce, which was set up earlier this year to provide advice to the government on the potential design and implementation of pro-competitive measures – including the methodology which will determine what companies should be designated as having strategic market status, and how a regime would work in practice.

The digital sector contributed nearly £150 billion to the UK economy in 2018 – driving opportunity, productivity and creativity in every corner of the UK.

Through its study, the CMA found that, among other things, a lack of competition in digital markets prevents the development of new, valuable services for consumers, and results in higher prices for businesses using the platforms – which are then passed on to consumers.

The CMA’s market study was commissioned by the government as part of a series of steps to promote competition in this area. In 2018, the government commissioned the Digital Competition Expert Panel, chaired by Professor Jason Furman, which proposed a new pro-competition regime for digital platform markets in its final report, the Furman Review. The Government accepted the Furman Review’s six strategic recommendations, including the establishment of a new Digital Markets Unit (DMU), earlier this year.

The government will consult on the form and function of the Digital Markets Unit in early 2021 and legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows.

• building on the work of the Furman Review, the government established the Digital Markets Taskforce in March. The Taskforce is due to report later this year
• the Digital Markets Unit will build on the work of the Taskforce and begin to operationalise the key elements of the regime
• measures to promote competition in digital markets will form part of wider work to reform the UK’s approach to competition policy, which will be consulted on in 2021
• the proposed approach to the regulation of digital markets complements the objectives of wider digital policy and regulatory interventions, including the National Data Strategy and the Online Harms Bill
• the CMA market study says Google has significant market power in the general search market and in search advertising, and Facebook has significant market power in the social media market and in display advertising
• around £14 billion was spent on digital advertising in the UK in 2019, around 80% of which was spent on Google and Facebook, and the CMA notes the number of adverts that consumers are exposed to on digital platforms is increasing, with adverts seen per hour on Facebook rising from 40-50 in 2016 to 50-60 in 2019. Its average revenue per user is now more than ten times higher than competitors
• In 2016, Google increased the maximum number of adverts displayed following a search query and moved these to the centre of the page above organic results. In the UK its prices for advertising on desktop and mobile are also 30 to 40 per cent higher than Bing’s, its main competitor

The CMA also provides evidence that a lack of competition in these markets leads to harms to consumers and businesses through:

1. Reduced innovation. The report argues that a lack of competitive pressure on Google and Facebook results in reduced innovation and inhibits the development of new, valuable services for consumers.
2. Higher prices for goods and services. The report provides evidence that businesses are facing higher prices on the dominant platforms (which are passed through to consumers). CMA analysis shows that in the UK both Google and Facebook are consistently earning profits well above what is required to reward investors with a fair return. Google earned £1.7 billion more profit in 2018 than the benchmark level of profits. For Facebook, the comparable figure for 2018 was £650 million.
3. Reduced quality. The number of adverts that consumers are exposed to on digital platforms is increasing. Adverts seen per hour on Facebook rose from 40-50 in 2016 to 50-60 in 2019. In 2016, Google increased the maximum number of adverts displayed following a search query and moved these to the centre of the page above organic results.
4. Lack of consumer control. The report argues that consumers would have more control over the collection and use of their data if there was more competition in digital advertising markets. The CMA highlights that search and social media markets are characterised by “take it or leave it” terms that mean consumers have to share their data with platforms to use services. In a competitive market, one would expect services to compete to offer better terms to consumers who prefer not to share their data.
5. Broader social harm. The CMA also set out evidence of broader harms due to weak competition, such as the negative impact on the quality of journalism, in line with the findings of the Cairncross Review.

People arriving in the UK from Estonia and Latvia from 4am Saturday 28 November will need to self-isolate for 2 weeks as the countries are removed from the travel corridor list.

Data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England (PHE) has indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in those destinations, leading to ministers removing these from the current list of travel corridors.

The following Pacific Islands (Samoa, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands), Bhutan, Timor-Leste, Mongolia and Aruba have been added to the government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in risk from coronavirus in these destinations. From 4am on Saturday 28 November, passengers arriving into the UK from these destinations will no longer need to self-isolate so long as they haven’t been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days preceding their arrival.

Having reviewed the latest scientific evidence, the Chief Medical Officer has advised that the travel ban on Denmark introduced on 7 November is lifted. The COVID-19 mink variant in Denmark is receding with the Danish health authorities now considering it most likely extinct. However, Denmark will not be added to the Travel Corridors list to further mitigate any potential risk to the UK and ensure that the UK public is protected. Passengers arriving into the UK directly or indirectly from Denmark from 4am on Saturday 28 November will need to self-isolate for 14 days, before then following domestic rules.

A range of factors are taken into account when deciding to remove a country from the exemption list, including the continued increase of coronavirus within a country, the numbers of new cases, information on a country’s testing capacity, testing regime and test positivity rate and potential trajectory of the disease in the coming weeks.

There has been a consistent increase in COVID-19 cases per 100,000 of the population in Estonia over the past week, with a 25% increase in total cases over this time period. In Latvia, new cases per week have increased by 16% over the same time period.

At the same time, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Estonia and Latvia, and to no longer advise against all but essential travel to Aruba and Bhutan. These changes reflect the latest assessments by PHE of the risk to travellers in these destinations. The FCDO continues to advise against all but essential travel to Denmark, Mongolia, Timor-Leste, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

The government has made consistently clear it will take decisive action if necessary, to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.

National restrictions introduced on 5 November remain in place meaning everyone must stay at home unless travelling for a very limited set of reasons, including for work or education. This means people can no longer travel to take holidays or travel internationally unless for work or other legally permitted reasons. Those in breach of the rules face penalties starting at £200 and rising to a maximum of £6,400.

People currently in Estonia and Latvia are encouraged to follow the local rules and check the FCDO travel advice pages on GOV.UK for further information. The government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from these destinations who now will need to self-isolate.

COVID-19 has profoundly changed the nature of international travel. Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCDO, given the potential for changing coronavirus infection rates to affect both the advice about travelling to other countries and rules about self-isolation on return.

All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK unless they fall into a small group of exemptions.

Penalties for those breaching the self-isolation rules when returning from non-exempt countries have increased from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation following a positive COVID test or contact from Test and Trace.

The government has committed billions of pounds through the Spending Review to continue supporting businesses through the pandemic and stimulate the economic recovery, to cement the UK as a science superpower through R&D and innovation investment, and continue progress to kickstart a green industrial revolution and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will have a key role to play delivering these pledges.

Continuing the UK’s recovery from coronavirus

The UK has acted swiftly to put in place one of the most generous and comprehensive economic responses to coronavirus anywhere in the world, now totalling over £280 billion. The Spending Review has set out the government’s intention to maintain this support to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods, while stimulating the UK’s economic recovery.

In the Spending Review the government has committed to invest:

• an additional £733 million in the government’s Vaccines Taskforce for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines; £128 million to support vaccines research and manufacturing, including funding for the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre which will be capable of producing enough vaccine doses for the entire UK population in 6 months;
• more than £500 million to support the continued delivery of vital Covid-19 loans, including paying for the 12 month interest free period on the Bounce Back Loans and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes; and
• £557.5 million for the British Business Bank to continue supporting SMEs across the UK to access the finance they need to grow and stimulate the economic recovery post-Covid.

Growing the UK’s reputation as a science superpower

The UK has a proud record of innovation and discovery. We are the country that gave the world penicillin, the World Wide Web, the theories of gravity and evolution, that unravelled the structure of DNA. That spirit of discovery is still alive in this country today. The UK remains a science superpower, with a world leading research and development environment. To grow this reputation, the government has committed to investing £14.6 billion in research and development in 2021/22.

In the Spending Review the government has committed to invest in 2021/22:

• at least £490 million in core Innovate UK programmes and infrastructure to support ground-breaking technologies and businesses;
• £79 million in innovation loans to help cutting-edge UK businesses to access capital;
• £200 million for the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio to develop new decarbonisation solutions and accelerate near-to-market low-carbon energy innovations; and
• £450 million to support strategic government priorities, build new science capability and support the whole research and innovation ecosystem. This includes £350m for BEIS, including the first £50 million of an £800 million investment by 2024/25 towards a new agency for high-risk high-payoff research.

Spurring a green industrial revolution and achieving net zero by 2050

The UK is a world leader in the fight against climate change, cutting emissions by 43% since 1990/ The Prime Minister recently outlined a 10 point plan which will mobilise £12 billion to enable the UK to forge ahead with achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, while spurring a green industrial revolution that will create and support up to 250,000 jobs.

In the Spending Review the government has committed to invest:

• at least £125 million in 2020/21 in nuclear technologies, as part of up to £525 million set out in the PM’s 10 point plan, supporting the development of large-scale nuclear, and including up to £385 million in an Advanced Nuclear Fund for advanced nuclear R&D
• to increase the Carbon Capture and Storage Infrastructure Fund to support the construction of four new Carbon Capture and Storage clusters by 2030;
• £240 million to create a Net Zero Hydrogen Production fund to support the production of low-carbon hydrogen;
• £160 million upgrading ports and infrastructure to support the expansion of offshore wind;
• over £1 billion next year to decarbonise homes and buildings, extending the package for low carbon heat and energy efficiency announced earlier in the year;
• £122 million to support the creation of clean heat networks; and
• £500 million over next four years on the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries.

Supporting our lowest-paid workers

Millions of workers across the country are expected to receive a rise in their pay, following the government’s announcement of an increase in the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage from April 2021. Rate rises include a 2.2% increase in the National Living Wage to £8.91, the equivalent of £345 extra per year for a full-time worker.

For the first time, the age of eligibility for the National Living Wage will be lowered from 25 to 23. Some of the UK’s youngest workers will also benefit from a 3.6% increase to the National Minimum Wage for apprentices.

The rises mean that the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the NLW will have increased by around £4,030 since its introduction in April 2016.

Securing the future of the Post Office network

A total of £227m of funding has been provided to extend the network subsidy by £50 million and provide the Post Office with £177 million to invest in the future of the network. This will ensure that post offices in every corner of the country, including our vital rural branches, can keep providing essential services for the people that rely on them – now and in the future.

Mr Speaker, Madam Speaker, Lord Mayor, Your Excellencies, Congressman King, Congressman Holding, parliamentary colleagues, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to close today’s proceedings on this auspicious occasion.

I am reassured by the fact that not even a global pandemic could stand in the way of two old friends, ensuring an anniversary is marked properly!

But as we do so, some watching our proceedings, may regard these commemorations as a nostalgic, or a sentimental backward look at the past – but I believe this would be a mistake.

Because while our commemorations certainly acknowledge the past, they also represent the opportunity to celebrate the enduring friendship between our two countries and importantly, allow us to look forward with confidence to what more we can achieve together.

Current UK-US partnership

Today’s commemorations remind us of our two nations’ inextricable links to each other. Indeed, the Mayflower story is as much about Plymouth in Devon as it is Plymouth, Massachusetts; as much about Billericay in Essex as it is Billerica, Massachusetts.

And this shared history has shaped our values, and our values have set the basis for our global outlook, which explains why we see the world, with both its challenges and opportunities, so similarly.

It is therefore no surprise that no other countries do more together than the United Kingdom and the United States. Indeed, as a joint citizen myself, born in the Empire State of New York, I can attest to that in person.

We are each other’s closest allies and our shared understanding means we are able to offer the world truly global leadership on the big questions and significant challenges which we face today.

Next year the UK will chair the G7, as Speaker Pelosi said, and host the COP26 summit, providing us both with an ideal opportunity to demonstrate global leadership in action by boldly shaping the solutions to ongoing global challenges. We will work with our partners to ensure that the global free trading system on which our economies are based remains fair, competitive and secure.

As part of the UK’s wider leadership, we will also continue to push for an end to disputes and tit-for-tat tariffs between trading partners. Instead of escalating, we need to work together towards swift negotiated settlement.

Whether this be the climate crisis, terrorism, or rising trade tensions, the lessons of history could not be clearer – the answers to the big questions, however complex or difficult, are always found when the UK and US stand to shoulder-shoulder.

Northern Ireland

Within that context, we are reminded of the pivotal and constructive role played by the United States in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

Securing the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, and the consent of both communities in Northern Ireland, should never be taken for granted, and the UK looks forward to continuing to build on the momentous developments of this process, all well as protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

And it is these commitments which explain why in no circumstances could we ever allow a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

UK-US Trade

With today’s anniversary in mind, we should not forget that aside from those seeking to escape religious persecution, passengers onboard the Mayflower also included tradesman, clearly aware of the commercial opportunities between the Old World and the New.

400 years later, we can clearly see the fruits of this early entrepreneurial spirit – today the US is the UK’s largest single trading partner, with total trade in 2019 reaching over £232bn, approximately $300 billion.

Every day, a million Britons turn up to work for American-owned companies; and, every day, a million Americans turn up to work for British-owned companies.

We have more than $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies creating high-skilled jobs and economic growth.

And before the onset of the pandemic, this was an economic picture that was booming with total trade between us growing 11.3% in 2019.

With both our countries now committing to ‘build back better’, we are confident these figures can return to pre-pandemic levels and reach new heights.

UK-US FTA

It remains the case however, that despite our historical and cultural ties, and ever-growing trading relationship, our two countries do not have a formal trade agreement.

The UK would be the largest economy with which the US has ever signed a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement.

Our analysis shows that an ambitious FTA could increase GDP in the US alone by approximately $10 billion.

And as impressive as that figure is, we should not forget it would represent the cumulative product of the expertise and enterprise of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.

Indeed, this deal would unlock the potential of our small and medium size businesses who stand to gain the most from this FTA.

It would be a win for the High Street as well as Main Street…

A win for consumers, with a wider range of affordable products potentially meaning more ‘bang for their buck’ or being ‘quids in’ depending on which side of the Atlantic they shop!

An FTA between us would not only enhance our partnership but also send a powerful signal that free trade and open supply chains lie at the heart of the global economic recovery from COVID-19.

We could set international standards on labour, make further strides on women’s economic empowerment while ensuring we lead the world in the future of digital trade and the protection of intellectual property. It can also support our climate change objectives by promoting new job and business growth opportunities in low carbon technologies, services and systems.

And as Minister for Trade Policy, I have spoken to countless business men and women in many parts of the UK and the US, who are buoyed by the exciting opportunities of an Agreement.

I firmly believe that a UK-US FTA can be part of our work together to reassert global leadership and cooperation based around open economies and vibrant democracies.

Conclusion

As I conclude, I would like to return to the experience of those Pilgrims onboard the Mayflower 400 years ago.

It took considerable courage and fortitude for those pilgrims to board that ship, undertaking a perilous journey across the Atlantic to an unfamiliar land.

Plagued by disease and material hardship, it was only with the assistance, knowledge and experience of the Native Americans, that the Colony was able to survive.

While we regret the often painful history of relations between European settlers and Indigenous Americans, this experience serves as an important lesson for us – that through cooperation and the building of trusting relationships, combined with resilience and resourcefulness, we can achieve the most together, and with that, offer the most to the world. And I am delighted that so many of the commemorations taking place on both sides of the Atlantic this year and next involve at their heart participation from the indigenous communities so impacted by the arrival of the Mayflower.

My sincere hope is that when generations to come commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage, they will recognise our generation as one which immeasurably strengthened the partnership between United Kingdom and United States, for the benefit and prosperity of our all peoples.