Peter Kyle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Peter Kyle
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Official portrait, 2024
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| Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology | |
| Assumed office 5 July 2024 |
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| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Michelle Donelan |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology | |
| In office 4 September 2023 – 5 July 2024 |
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| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |
| In office 29 November 2021 – 4 September 2023 |
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| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Louise Haigh |
| Succeeded by | Hilary Benn |
| Shadow Minister for Schools | |
| In office 14 May 2021 – 29 November 2021 |
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| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Wes Streeting |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Morgan |
| Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice | |
| In office 9 April 2020 – 14 May 2021 |
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| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Anna McMorrin |
| Member of Parliament for Hove |
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| Assumed office 7 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Mike Weatherley |
| Majority | 17,044 (30.2%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 September 1970 West Sussex, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Education | Felpham Comprehensive School, West Sussex |
| Alma mater | University of Sussex |
| Signature |  |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Building capacity for community economic development: the case of the Kat river valley, South Africa (2004) |
Peter Kyle (born 9 September 1970) is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove since 2015. He has served as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology since July 2024. He has previously served as Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice, Shadow Minister for Schools, and Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary.
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Early life and career
Peter Kyle was born on 9 September 1970 and grew up in West Sussex, where he was educated at Felpham Comprehensive School (now Felpham Community College), near Bognor Regis. It was at school that he found out he had dyslexia and left school, in his own words, "without any usable qualifications". By the age of 25, he was accepted on his third attempt to become a student at the University of Sussex, where he gained a degree in geography, international development and environmental studies, and later a doctorate in community development.
He worked as an aid worker and as a project director for the charity Children on the Edge in Eastern Europe and the Balkans helping young people whose lives had been affected by the political instability created by the Bosnian War and Kosovan War, helping to establish an orphanage in Romania.
In 2006, Kyle became a Cabinet Office special advisor focusing on social exclusion policy.
From 2007 to 2013, he was deputy chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO). In 2013, he became chief executive of Working for Youth, a newly formed charity focusing on helping unemployed youth.
Parliamentary career
At the 2015 general election, Kyle was elected to Parliament as MP for Hove with 42.3% of the vote and a majority of 1,236.
Kyle backed Liz Kendall in the 2015 Labour leadership election, and supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
Kyle sat on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee between 2016 and 2020. In May 2016, he questioned Mike Ashley, boss of Sports Direct, over poor working practices in his warehouses. Ashley accused Kyle of making "defamatory comments" against him and called for the MP to stand down from the committee.
He campaigned for remaining in the European Union during the 2016 Brexit referendum. In 2018, he rebelled against the Conservative government and the Labour Party whip in order to vote in favour of an amendment which would have kept the United Kingdom in the European Economic Area (EEA) in the event of the country leaving the European Union.
Kyle has championed apprenticeships, pledging in August 2016 to create 1,000 apprenticeships in 1,000 days in co-operation with the council and via the creation of a Greater Brighton Employer Skills Task Force.
Kyle was re-elected as MP for Hove at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 64.1% and an increased majority of 18,757.
In May 2018 Kyle called for the voting age to be lowered to 16 and put forward his own bill to this effect. The bill failed to pass after the Conservative Party employed a filibuster to prevent a vote on the bill being held in the House of Commons.
In March 2019, alongside fellow Labour MP Phil Wilson, Kyle put forward an amendment to Theresa May's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Dubbed the "Kyle-Wilson" amendment, it aimed to pass the Withdrawal Agreement Bill on the condition that the deal on offer would go back to the British people through a confirmatory vote. Whilst failing to pass twice in the House of Commons, it came 12 votes short on its second attempt. Both Kyle and Wilson signalled that they would bring back the amendment if Boris Johnson were to return with a Brexit deal in October 2019. Alongside deputy leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson, Kyle advocated for this position to become Labour policy.
At the 2019 general election, Kyle was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 58.3% and a decreased majority of 17,044.
Following Labour's defeat in the 2019 general election, Kyle urged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to resign, saying that the loss was not related to Labour's position on Brexit but rather to "dissatisfaction with our leadership and seeming incompetence".
Kyle endorsed Jess Phillips in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
In September 2020, Kyle was appointed a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Kyle was re-selected in January 2022 as the Labour candidate for Hove and Portslade at the 2024 general election.
In September 2022, he spoke in favour of Labour accepting Brexit and presenting a "positive vision for a better Britain" outside of the European Union.
Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice
In April 2020, he became the Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice.
In February 2021, Kyle presented a bill for victims to Parliament which had the aims of:
- Ensuring victims are read their rights at the same time as perpetrators
- Creating a register for people who run departments in the justice system which routinely ignore victims' rights
- Giving victims of persistent anti-social behaviour the same rights as victims of crimes
- Making the Victims' Commissioner independent of government and able to launch their own investigations.
Shadow Minister for Schools
In a minor Labour reshuffle in May 2021, Kyle was promoted to succeed Wes Streeting as the Shadow Minister for Schools.
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary
He was appointed Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary in the November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle.
Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Peter Kyle was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology in September 2023.
In October 2023 at the Labour Party Conference, Kyle said that a future Labour government would reduce regulations on technology companies in the development and use of Artificial Intelligence and "put it to work for everyone from every background." This led to some resistance by trade unions over concerns about intellectual property and the risk of "rampant profiteering".
In November 2023, Kyle outlined Labour policies to impose stricter regulations on general artificial intelligence research companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic with stronger requirements for reporting, data-sharing, and user safety. Kyle has also proposed the creation of a 'Regulatory Innovation office', which would expedite important regulatory decisions, the use of 10-year research and development budget settlement, in order to ensure stable long-term private investment, and a new body called 'Skills England', which would bring together "representatives of tertiary education, local and central government with representatives from business leaders and trade unions. In addition to strategic oversight of skills needs across England, the new body will also be responsible for assessing bids for colleges to become ‘Technical Excellence Colleges’."
In February 2024, Kyle announced that Labour would scrap the existing voluntary testing agreement between technology companies and the British government, instead creating a statutory regime in which Artificial Intelligence businesses would be required to share with the government the results of their test data. He claimed that this would enable the government to better understand the risks involved in AI and the challenges it could pose to different industries and society in general. He also met with representatives of the United States government and AI companies in Washington, United States, including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google, Apple, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
Peter Kyle has endorsed the use of artificial intelligence technology to improve public services, including in the National Health Service and British education system. He also said that "I have seen AI tools which I believe would have caught my mum's cancer earlier. It is personal for me to get this technology used in a way which keeps families together for longer. UK businesses can benefit hugely from the innovation this latest wave of technology can bring."
Personal life
From 2016 to 2017 Kyle was chair of governors of Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.
For eight years he was in a relationship with Czech-born Vlastimil Tiser, until Tiser's death in 2012. His mother died of cancer the following day. He said in an interview with The Times that "2012, the year of the Olympics, one of the best years for many people, was the worst year of my life. [...] I was on autopilot. There was constant adrenaline. Then afterwards, silence."
