Election 2017: What Does Result Mean For UK Technology?
ANALYSIS: Technology firms lament political uncertainty but tell Silicon that its Brexit that still really matters
BT was one of the industry giants to oppose Brexit and earlier this week it suggested leaving the EU might have an impact on R&D, especially if firms can’t get access to the best talent.
“If [the political climate] was unstable and uncertain last week, it’s gone up a notch now,” quipped CEO Gavin Patterson.
But the uncertainty and surprise is having one positive outcome for technology and that is that the prospect of a ‘hard Brexit’ appears to be off the table and that continued membership of the single market is more likely.
Soft Brexit
“What is looking clear is that the previous Conservative ‘hard Brexit’ position is going to prove difficult to support in light of the changes to the Conservative Government majority position,” said James Chappell, co-founder and CTO of cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows.
“My hope is that the new Government will need to come to a more consensual position on what the future deal with the EU will look like. This means closer consultation with business as well as other parties and hopefully, a ‘softer’ Brexit. Access to the single market and talent across the EU is vital as well to help grow our technology sector.
“More than anything, we need a return to something resembling ‘business as usual’ as quickly as possible. The current volatile climate is already worrying the negotiators at the table in Europe and uncertainty helps nobody.”
It’s clear that like much of the rest of the UK, the tech sector wants the situation resolved soon. But there are others that believe it doesn’t matter at all what happens at Westminster.
“I don’t want to downplay the importance of any General Election and the current uncertainty will obviously help no one,” said Alister Esam, CEO of eShare.
“But I honestly can’t see the impact on UK technology and business being that significant. Very little politicians do seems to influence business in a major way … I don’t think the current situation can be worse for business than a banking crisis, for example.”
The current uncertainty is doing no one any favours, not least when the country is supposed to be negotiating a deal that will change its course for the foreseeable future. But this uncertainty has opened the door to a soft Brexit, and it appears it is that, rather than any change in government that is the most important.
