Labour rejects Zack Polanski’s call to ‘slam brakes’ on building AI datacentres

Government says Green leader’s proposed moratorium on ‘energy-guzzling’ AI projects would be disaster for economy

Labour has rejected calls to pause construction of major AI infrastructure in Britain after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, said it was time to “slam the brakes on these energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres”.

The government hit back at the opposition party’s proposal of a “moratorium other than [for] local-scale datacentres for the local community”, saying it “would be a disaster for jobs and national security”.