Over 100 UK Parliamentarians Demand Urgent AI Regulation UK

Published: 08 December 2025. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Over one hundred British parliamentarians from across every major party and every corner of the United Kingdom have united in an extraordinary cross-party appeal. They want the government to introduce tough, binding regulations on the most powerful artificial intelligence systems before it is too late.

The open letter, coordinated by the campaign group Control AI, warns that superintelligent machines could soon “compromise national and global security” in ways comparable ways to nuclear weapons. Among the signatories are former Defence Secretary Lord Browne, former Environment Minister Lord Goldsmith, the Bishop of Oxford, and Jonathan Berry, the UK’s first dedicated AI minister under the previous government.

Lord Browne, who once sat in the Cabinet responsible for Britain’s nuclear deterrent, does not use the comparison lightly. “Superintelligent AI would be the most perilous technological development since we gained the ability to wage nuclear war,” he said. Only close international cooperation, he added, can stop a dangerous race for advantage that might endanger the entire planet.

The campaigners believe the current government is moving far too slowly. Although Labour’s July 2024 manifesto promised to place legal requirements on developers of the most powerful AI models, no legislation has yet appeared. Ministers face intense lobbying from American technology giants and, campaigners claim, pressure from Donald Trump’s incoming White House, which has openly opposed AI regulation.

Lord Goldsmith accused governments of falling “miles behind” the companies racing to build ever-more-capable systems. He called on Keir Starmer to reclaim the global leadership Britain showed when it hosted the 2023 AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. That summit concluded there was potential for “serious, even catastrophic, harm” from advanced AI, yet little has been done since to turn those warnings into binding rules.

One of the world’s most respected AI pioneers, Yoshua Bengio – often called a “godfather” of the technology – recently remarked that AI is currently less regulated than a sandwich. The comment has been widely quoted by those who believe voluntary commitments from industry are nowhere near enough.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, has also added his voice. He wants an independent AI watchdog to oversee public-sector use of the technology and mandatory safety testing before companies release new models. “The government does not seem to have adopted a precautionary principle,” he said. He highlighted existing harms to mental health, the vast environmental cost of training giant models, and longer-term questions about whether superintelligent systems will act in humanity’s best interests.

Jonathan Berry, who served as Viscount Camrose in the House of Lords and as Minister for AI under Rishi Sunak, now believes the time has come for binding rules on models that could pose existential risks. He proposed international “tripwire” thresholds: once an AI system reaches a defined level of capability, its creators must prove it has been rigorously tested, can be switched off, and can be retrained if it starts to behave dangerously.

Control AI’s chief executive, Andrea Miotti, described the government’s approach as “timid”. He accused British and American technology companies of aggressively lobbying to delay or weaken regulation while simultaneously warning that their own creations could one day destroy humanity. Given the blistering pace of progress, Miotti believes mandatory safety standards may be needed within one or two years away.

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology insisted that “AI is already regulated in the UK, with a range of existing rules already in place” and that the government’s position on preparing for AI opportunities and challenges “has not changed”.

Yet with more than a hundred parliamentarians now publicly demanding urgent action, and with senior figures from both main parties agreeing that the risks are growing by the day, the pressure on Keir Starmer to move from warm words to concrete legislation has rarely been greater.

The coming months will show whether Britain chooses to lead once again on AI safety – or whether it will allow the world’s most powerful technology to develop almost unchecked.