Britain Must Look West, Not Waffle in Brussels: The AI Revolution Won’t Wait for Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves, has once again proven she wouldn’t spot a golden opportunity if it danced into Number 11 dressed as Alan Turing and offered her a free quantum computer.

As she prepares to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, an opportunity of global consequence, what does she do? She chooses this moment to declare that Britain’s trading relationship with the EU is more important than with the United States.

I’m sorry, but has she lost her economic marbles?

This isn’t just wrong… it’s deluded. It’s 1970s thinking in a 2020s world. Reeves is gazing misty-eyed across the Channel while the real revolution is thundering across the Atlantic at the speed of light and silicon.

Let’s get one thing straight: the UK is the second-largest exporter of services on Planet Earth. That’s right—on Earth. From finance to fintech, legal services to life sciences, insurance to pharmaceuticals, British service industries are world-beating. And guess what? These sectors are the very engines of the AI and tech-driven future.

So where, dear reader, should we be hitching our economic wagon?

Should we be snuggling up to the EU—the same EU that is attempting to smother innovation under the lead-lined duvet of its bonkers AI Act? The same Brussels bureaucrats who are now regulating ChatGPT as if it were a radioactive waffle iron?

Or should we be partnering with the United States – home of Silicon Valley, venture capital, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and the world’s most dynamic tech ecosystem?

We are standing at the dawn of a new industrial revolution, one that will reshape business, healthcare, education… everything. AI is not a trend. It’s a seismic shift. And while Reeves is sipping espresso in Brussels cafés, the Americans are building the infrastructure for the next century.

Let me spell it out for the Chancellor: you do not win tomorrow’s economy by clinging to yesterday’s relationships.

And let’s talk turkey. Britain’s manufacturing has already been crippled by Labour’s energy policy, EU alignment obsession, and Reeves’ myopic focus on the past. Now she’s attempting to throw our world-leading services sector under the EU’s regulatory bus. It’s policy vandalism at a rate of knots.

Donald Trump—leader of the free world, marmite to some, messiah to others—grasps what our own Chancellor does not: that global trade must evolve with the tides of innovation, not cling to the driftwood of the past. Like it or not, he could yet be Britain’s knight in shining armour. The man loves the UK—he’s said it, shown it, and backed it.

And yet, here’s Rachel Reeves, dutifully reciting tired platitudes about “our nearest neighbours,” as if proximity beats progress. As if geography still determines destiny. It doesn’t. Not in an age where AI crosses borders faster than any customs union ever could.

The truth is this: the US is where our future lies. Not just in trade volumes, but in scale, opportunity, investment, and innovation.

Startups in Britain don’t dream of breaking into Belgium—they dream of cracking the U.S. Why? Because that’s where customers are, where capital flows, where unicorns are born and billionaires are made. If we don’t align with America, we are chaining ourselves to a sinking ship of European overregulation.

This UK government needs to start thinking exponentially. We need a moonshot mentality. We should be:

• Creating an AI-First UK economy
• Building a frictionless tech corridor with the US
• Becoming the transatlantic launchpad for every serious AI startup
• Supercharging our services exports to the biggest digital market in the world
• Securing the US-UK trade deal

Instead, Rachel Reeves wants to sell sausages to Strasbourg while California invents the next industrial age.

We must be bold. We must be brave. We must reject the tired orthodoxy that sees Britain as a middle-manager of Europe, and embrace the destiny of being a leader in the global AI revolution.

It’s time to stop thinking small. It’s time to fire up the boosters, reach for the stars—and align with the only power that actually gets it.

Reeves is facing the wrong way. And unless she turns around, she’ll take Britain with her… backwards, not forwards.

So I say: forget bureaucratic Brussels—forge a new alliance with America. Make Britain the gateway to the future.

God save the King. God bless Britain. And God help us if we let Reeves steer this ship for much longer.

By Claire Bullivant