As UK Election Approaches, Labour and Conservatives Remain Silent on Cryptocurrency

The Labour Party, favourite to win tomorrow’s UK general election, has barely mentioned crypto during its campaign, leaving the future of the industry in the country up in the air.

The subject was not addressed during the last debate between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour’s Keir Starmer, which was dominated by welfare, immigration and relations with the European Union. While the Conservative government has promoted a number of crypto-focused policies, its current government manifest – like those of Work and the Liberal Democrats – makes no mention of it.

Work conduit Polls show Starmer leading with 42% of voters supporting him. The Conservatives have 19%, according to an Ipsos poll in June. When the seats are counted, Starmer will likely be prime minister with a large majority in parliament.

The party’s manifesto “refers to a kind of pro-competitive environment,” said Laura Navaratnam, head of UK policy at the Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry group. “It talks about the role of regulators, but it’s all in a broader context. So still nothing on cryptocurrencies. But the positive side is they haven’t said anything negative either.”

Instead, Labour’s manifesto focuses on economic growth, with plans to invest billions in building supply chains, adding more neighbourhood police officers and cutting waiting times for the National Health Service.

Party representatives did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

“Looking at all the manifestos as a whole, no one mentioned crypto,” Jordan Wain, head of UK politics at Chainalysis, said of the UK parties’ plans. “But that makes sense because manifestos are written for the electorate. They’re written primarily to show potential voters what that party thinks about divisive issues.”

Health care, national security, crime and the economy are the main issues, he said.

Nevertheless, crypto industry players hope that major parties will keep this issue in mind.

George McDonaugh, co-founder and co-CEO of investment firm KR1, said in a statement that he believes the crypto industry will help “drive growth and jobs.”

Eleanor Gaywood, head of strategy at protection firm Coincover, said it was “encouraging” that both Labour and the Conservatives were backing the innovation, but added that concrete details were needed. “It will take time after the election to assess the next government’s position on cryptocurrencies.”

These rules are still needed, as are the rules on market abuse, Wain said. Guidance on the UK’s promotion rules is also needed, Navaratnam wrote in an opinion pieceCurrently, regulators oversee cryptocurrencies using the existing anti-money laundering registration regime and promotion rules, but the country needs more, cryptocurrency advocates said.

The Conservatives said they wanted the country to be a cryptography centerand last year legislation adopted to help regulate the industry as well as measures to make Enter crypto more easily in criminal cases. The Treasury Department consulted on how he wanted to regulate crypto and suggested a phased approach that starts with stablecoin legislation.

A Labor government would not necessarily end the country’s cryptocurrency ambitions, Navaratnam said.

“So one would hope that (the stablecoin legislation) would be a fairly uncontroversial piece of legislation, that is already following on from something quite significant, which is the amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Act, and that would be allowed to proceed, in which case we would hope to see something in the fall,” Navaratnam said.

Chainalysis’ Wain said he believes much of the work done by regulators won’t simply be swept under the rug.

“A lot of the really important work has been done and it hasn’t been done by the parties themselves, it’s been done by departments, it’s been done by the FCA, they’re the ones who make the legislation,” he said. “Whatever party comes to power, no matter how quiet or how vocal they’ve been, they’re not going to sweep all that hard work off the table, they’re not going anywhere.”

The FCA declined to comment.