Technology

Posted on April 20, 2016 by staff

Conservative MP: Tech sector should speak up against Brexit

Technology

Conservative MP Matt Warman has urged technology firms to be more vocal in their opposition to a potential Brexit.

Research has shown the tech sector to be overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the European Union ahead of the June 23 referendum.

The MP for Boston and Skegness, who is against the idea of a Brexit, said it was important that they make their views clear to the public.

“The tech community is very, very strong in the opinion [that technology] is global,” he said.

“If you guys believe this stuff, get out there and say it. It’s a hard task for politicians because we are often not the most trusted people in the room.”

In the US Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg have spoken out against Donald Trump’s potential Republican candidacy for the White House.

Warman, a former consumer technology editor of The Telegraph and chair of the all-party parliamentary group For Broadband and Digital Connectivity, acknowledged that taking such a stand is far from easy.

“From a commercial point of view, it’s a brave thing to do,” he added.

“We know that someone like Mark Zuckerberg is passionately against Donald Trump, but he’s not going to paste it all over Facebook.

“Businesses need to find a way to get it out there. They need to … publicly say it rather than hope [the referendum] goes one way.”

There have been several warnings from the US that the “special relationship” with Britain would have to be revised, should voters opt out of the EU.

Eight former US Treasury secretaries were the latest to add their voices on Wednesday.

“A vote to leave Europe represents a risky bet on the country’s economic future,” they said in an open letter to The Times.

The letter said that Britain would be poorer and more inward looking in the event of a breakaway, while London’s role as a global financial centre would be put at risk.