Hyperfixating on where a defence company happens to be registered will leave Britain at a disadvantage, writes Paul Jenkinson, CEO of the British sovereign AI company Whitespace.

During a visit to a BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness last month, Andy Burnham set out his vision for the future of the British defence sector. "Security is not only about what we build, but who builds it and benefits from it," he stated.

Burnham's political rise to Prime Minister has firmly renewed focus on 'buying British' across defence procurement – British money spent on British firms, as he puts it.

The logic behind this is sound. Increasing investment in defence and national economic growth are not mutually exclusive. Defence should instead be treated as the innovation arm of government – a force multiplier for economic growth that supports skilled employment, research and development, and international trade. The government's own commitment to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP has amplified debate over how that money is spent – and with whom.

Yet in the current reality of the UK defence sector, this turn toward nationalism may in fact prove unhelpful.

Sovereignty is the new gold standard

'Sovereignty' has become one of the most frequently invoked buzzwords in UK domestic and foreign policy, appearing constantly in government speeches, political bylines and research papers. In most discussions it goes hand in hand with the Buy British ethos: keeping capabilities on home soil to ensure resilience against emerging threats.

Sovereign capabilities in defence, technology and critical infrastructure have taken their rightful place at the top of the national agenda. All too often, however, the push for sovereignty asks the wrong questions. Measuring sovereign capability by where a company happens to be registered leaves the nation on the back foot.

While procuring homegrown capabilities may be an effective strategy in other sectors such as healthcare, defence coordination with NATO is too crucial for registration to be the deciding factor. Alliance interoperability depends on equipment and systems working together across member states, not on suppliers' headquarters. The definition of sovereign capabilities is therefore fundamentally different.

At Whitespace, we do not supply sovereign AI to the UK defence sector simply because we are a UK-based company; we do so because the UK can depend on what we deliver. The real question should be whether the government can trust that the capabilities being procured are genuinely resilient.

That question points to the crux of the issue.

Building genuine competitors in defence

If buying British simply because it is British is a counterintuitive strategy, then levelling the playing field so that UK tech companies can compete as genuine rivals to 'reliable' global brands is the strategy that cannot wait.

The government's desire to buy logos frustrates me far more than nationalism does. There is a root problem to address here: a system that prioritises procedural requirements over capability and performance. The phrase "no one ever got fired for awarding a contract to IBM" comes to mind.

If procurement is refocused on technical performance that can genuinely be relied upon and will not be cut off at the whim of others, a boost in British defence procurement will happen naturally. The performance of homegrown technology companies would then improve on merit, not rhetoric.

Other changes to the underlying mechanics of procurement – changes the UK tech sector has long campaigned for – will also be needed to truly level the playing field. The UK defence sector is notoriously slow with procurement, and the country is penny-wise and pound-foolish, which can be devastating for a scaling company at the mercy of such timelines. How forthcoming procurement reforms and the government's defence industrial strategy translate into practice will be the real test of whether homegrown firms get a genuine shot.

Given the right environment, British firms are more than capable of delivering the capabilities the UK defence sector needs to stay resilient against emerging threats – not because they are British, but because they are genuinely better for the job.

Paul Jenkinson is CEO of the British sovereign AI company Whitespace.