Alex Depledge, the Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser, will leave the role on Thursday, warning ministers that the government treats entrepreneurship and innovation as “a sideshow” while directing taxpayer money towards legacy industries.
Depledge, 45, was appointed by the then chancellor Rachel Reeves in June 2025. She departs after two Budgets under two chancellors, the second of which John Healey delivers on Wednesday.
“Keeping scale-ups on the fringes underestimates the contribution of our greatest companies, and we need to support and develop them on British shores at all costs,” she said, speaking at her Surrey home. “We treat them as a bit of a sideshow.”
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