Over 2,000 tech leaders reject PM’s Brexit deal and demand a final say

Key figures from tech and video games industries write to Prime Minister to say her Brexit deal will cause crippling uncertainty and drain UK of talent. This comes on the eve of the ‘Digital Day’ when the government highlight the digital sector in a vain attempt to sell their bad Brexit deal.

Over 2,300 UK tech pioneers including Martha Lane Fox, Jimmy Wales and Ian Livingstone have rejected the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, and called for the people to have the final say on Brexit.

Letters organised by Tech For UK [1] and Games4EU [2] and delivered to 10 Downing St this morning bring together leading firms and directors from the tech and video games industries to set out their deep misgivings about the PM’s deal, which they say will severely damage the UK’s future growth prospects. They argue that the deal would:

*     Cause long-term business uncertainty, harming prospects for tech

*     Trigger a brain drain as tech and games talent looks to relocate from UK

*     Hit investment in business as the UK misses out on future EU funding programmes

Signatories to the letters [3,4] include leaders of some of the UK’s most exciting tech firms including peer-to-peer lender Zopa, ticketing startup Masabi, language learning firm Busuu and small business banking provider Tide; senior figures at big brands such as Deliveroo; creators of some of the world’s most successful video games including Dan Gray (Monument Valley) and Peter Molyneux (Fable); and organisations at the top of the video game industry including King, Riot Games and Yogscast.

They also include leading figures from the tech world including Martha Lane Fox (Doteveryone.org.uk), Dr Sue Black (tech evangelist responsible for saving Bletchley Park), and Ian Livingstone (founder of Games Workshop).

Baroness Lane Fox said:

“The technology sector is one of the fastest growing parts of the economy. So when its leaders say they hate this Brexit deal because it will damage growth, we should sit up and listen.”

Ian Livingstone CBE, co-founder of Games Workshop, said:

“The video games industry is at the heart of our knowledge economy. It relies on unrestricted access to talent in a high skills, high tech, high growth and export-focused industry, all of which are threatened by this Brexit deal.

“By creating a climate of uncertainty and removing many of the existing benefits of EU membership, this deal will harm our thriving games industry and cost us in jobs and growth. That’s why we’re calling on MPs to reject the deal and give people the final say on Brexit.”

Dr Sue Black, author of Saving Bletchley Park, said:

“The UK is a leader in the tech industry. As technology becomes all pervasive, our success as a nation depends increasingly on the talent that we attract, recruit and nurture here in the UK into the tech industry.

“Brexit is already stopping the UK from achieving its potential at a time when we need to show our strength as a key competitor in the global marketplace.”

The joint action comes in response to self-appointed representative body TechUK coming out in support of the Prime Minister’s deal [5]. This has angered many leading tech startups who feel TechUK does not speak for them.

Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch and founder of Tech For UK, said:

“TechUK barely consulted the industry it claims to represent before aligning itself to the government’s disastrous Brexit agreement hours after it was released. This is why over 2,000 senior UK tech leaders are writing to the Prime Minister calling for a final say on the Brexit deal through a public vote.

“Brexit is a dire threat to the UK tech industry. Leaving the EU’s customs union, single market, Digital Single Market, VAT area and regulatory framework will cause grave harm to a sector that employs over 2 million people and is one of our country’s great economic success stories.”

The tech and games industries are among the fastest-growing and highest-value sectors in the UK economy. Tech is growing 2.5 times faster than the rest of the UK economy, and is worth an estimated £184bn a year [6].