LABOUR has scrapped a £1.3 billion investment implemented by the previous Conservative government for tech and AI projects.

The programme included £800 million for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh.

Another £500m was for the AI Research Resource, a scheme which helps fund computing power for AI.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said it would not be taken forward as the Tories had not allocated its funding in its spending plans and that it is “taking difficult and necessary spending decisions across all departments.”

An additional £300m committed to the AI Research Resource will continue as planned as this funding was already in place and has been distributed.

The DSIT added that it is pulling together its own plans to invest in compute infrastructure as part of the development of its AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Shadow science, innovation and tech secretary Andrew Griffith accused Labour of having “lower ambitions” for Britain’s tech sector.