Robert Peston

The economy was growing again.

We were looking more competitive as a nation.

And then we voted to leave the European Union.

Hello and welcome to The Rest Is Money with me, Robert Peston.

Today, I'm delighted to be joined here at the South by Southwest Tech Conference in trendy East London.

I'm joined by the former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, also the former, I don't know whether he's the right hand or left hand person of Mark Zuckerberg at Meta.

And we've had the most...

gripping conversation about why he left Meta.

I think he was slightly more revealing about the circumstances and what he really thinks about Silicon Valley than I might have anticipated.

But then the meat of what we talked about was this AI industrial and social revolution that we're living through and whether

the UK and Europe can compete, whether it's too late and how important it is to create tech champions in the UK and Europe if we're going to get our living standards up.

So an absolutely fascinating conversation.

Here's my conversation with Nick Clegg.

Former deputy prime minister, former leader of the Lib Dems.

I mean, people describe you, I don't know if it's quite right, as a sort of number two meta left as Trump was taking power.

It's weird that Zuckerberg moves into Trumpian mode.

Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg leaves the company.

As you say, yeah.

Can't believe the events were connected.

Making the case for it was going to become difficult.