Labour-Loving ‘Diversity’ Champion Named Innovate UK Head – Guido Fawkes

Labour-Loving ‘Diversity’ Champion Named Innovate UK Head

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Innovate UK, the government’s ‘independent’ innovation agency under UK Research and Innovation, has named Tom Adeyoola as its new Executive Chair, expected to start at the end of April. Adeyoola, co-founder of Extend Ventures – a charity focused on supporting ‘diverse’ entrepreneurs – has already worked with Innovate UK to boost diversity in grant funding and help underrepresented business owners. Expect the quango to dish out some more taxpayer-funded diversity projects with him in charge then…

Adeyoola’s no stranger to working for Labour, who drafted him in to co-author review their Start-Up, Scale-Up report in 2022 as part of the then-Opposition’s plan to support UK businesses. The review calls to “invest” in an Ethnic Diversity Code” to direct more support to entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. Adeyoola was one of the ‘120 business leaders’ to sign a letter backing Labour during the general election, and was enjoyed a cosy panel chat alongside AI minister Feryal Clark at Labour’s conference last year. Always good to keep in the family…