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Since prime minister Theresa May announced her resignation on May 24, the race to succeed her has become increasingly crowded, with 13 MPs already declaring their intention to stand for leader. The big issue on which the whole leadership election will revolve is of course Brexit – but there is so much more one should expect from a potential Prime Minister.
Here's how each would-be prime minister stacks up when it comes to science, climate change, technology and the internet.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson, currently the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, was mayor of London. He tried once to become British prime minister, but failed because Michael Gove (also a candidate) knifed him in the back. He then served as Foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018 before resigning in protest over Theresa May's proposed Brexit deal.
Science and climate
Boris Johnson’s track on climate science is not very straightforward. Despite encouraging Londoners to cycle with the “Boris bikes” scheme, he has written and said many things gesturing toward climate scepticism. In 2015, he argued in his Daily Telegraph column that the recent warm winter had nothing to do with climate change: “Whatever is happening to the weather at the moment," he said, "it is nothing to do with the conventional doctrine of climate change,” he wrote.
He has also regularly praised the meteorologist Piers Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn’s climate-denying brother, in his column. He chaired a think tank, the Initiative for Free Trade, with climate change-sceptic fellow Conservative Daniel Hannan MEP, and in 2018 went on a trip to Washington paid by a climate-doubting American think tank. According to vote database TheyWorkForYou, he has consistently voted against measures to prevent climate change, including against setting a carbon reduction target for the UK in 2016. Yet, in 2017, he regretted Donald Trump’s decision to take the US out of the Paris agreement, hoping the country would continue to “take climate change extremely seriously”. He also recently urged the Extinction Rebellion protesters to “lecture China instead” of the UK, explaining that the country now produces “more CO2 than the EU and the US combined”.
Technology and internet
In 2015, when he was still mayor of London, Johnson accused Uber of “systematically breaking the law”. Of the many businesses who are a bit worried about the economical impact of Brexit, which includes the UK’s tech industry, he has famously said: “Fuck business”.
Perhaps it’s his proposed solution for the Irish border issue that best demonstrate his views: Johnson thinks that technology can avoid checks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, eliminating the need for a ”backstop” or a custom union. He once compared this hypothetical system to the absence of borders between different London boroughs: “There's no border between Islington or Camden and Westminster”, he said in 2018, “but when I was mayor of London we anaesthetically and invisibly took hundreds of millions of pounds from the accounts of people travelling between those two boroughs without any need for border checks.”
If you’re not convinced by the comparison – it’s safe to assume most Northern Irish people were not – he went on to claim it is “very relevant”, because “there is all sorts of scope for pre-booking, electronic checks, all sorts of things that you can do to obviate the need for a hard border”. Johnson is tipped by bookies by a large margin to be the UK’s next PM.
Michael Gove
Former journalist and current environment secretary Michael Gove is among the few who stood by May’s side and defended her deal when cabinet ministers started resigning en masse. He is routinely described as one of the most intellectually acute Conservative grandees.
Science and climate
If there is one who isn’t a climate denier, it’s Michael Gove. As environment secretary, Gove is unapologetically supporting the students marching against climate change. He has said that the movement is “saying to [his] generation, ‘you’re the ones who created this mess and you better clean it up’”. He has linked extreme weather in the UK to climate change and has said the country needs to do “a lot more” to tackle the problem.
He recently met with Extinction Rebellion and pledged to reduce carbon emissions to “net zero” – even though he did not give a timeline. An activist said of the meeting: “It was less shit than I thought it would be, but only mildly.” But, surprise! He has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change, including on reducing the permitted carbon dioxide emission rate of new homes, and he was absent for several votes on the Energy Bill.
Technology and internet
As education minister in 2012, Gove scrapped “boring” IT lessons. But in 2014, he praised a new curriculum that “teaches children computer science, information technology, and digital literacy: teaching them how to code, and how to create their own programs”. Gove has allegedly tried to bypass the Freedom of Information Act, The Financial Times reported in 2011: his team used their private email accounts to communicate, thinking they were not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (a rookie mistake – they were). One of the private accounts Gove is believed to have used was called “Mrs Blurt”.
Andrea Leadsom
A staunch Brexiteer, Andrea Leadsom was the leader of the House until May 2019 when she resigned, citing her inability to keep supporting Theresa May’s Brexit deal. She was May’s last standing contender in the 2016 leadership race.
Science and climate
Until she started as energy secretary in May 2015, Andrea Leadsom was “unsure” whether climate change was real and had to “question” the issue, The Independentreported her saying: “When I first came to this job one of my two questions was: 'Is climate change real?' and the other was 'Is hydraulic fracturing [aka fracking] safe?'”
She stands now “completely persuaded” on both questions, which might reassure you (or not). As energy secretary she has pushed fracking in the UK as “an opportunity not to be missed”, arguing that “solar panels don’t generate electricity when the sun isn’t shining, and wind turbines don’t generate electricity when there’s no wind.” She’s also said that “there is no chance in the near term that we move away from fossil fuels.” She has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change, including against setting a carbon-reduction target for the UK in 2016.
Technology and internet
There is little to say about Andrea Leadsom’s tech policies, except that after she told The Times being a mother made her a better choice than May in the 2016 leadership context, and her comments went viral, her campaign manager complained that the “establishment” was teaming up against her, arguably displaying a wanting grasp of how online virality works. As secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, she also advocated for the mass adoption of raspberry-picking robots in order to replace EU farm workers post-Brexit. (Here’s our analysis on why that is not really feasible.)
Dominic Raab
Dominic Raab was the second Brexit secretary (after David Davis and before Stephen Barclay) for a few months in 2018 before he resigned over Theresa May’s Brexit deal. He is now a backbencher and remains staunchly pro-Brexit.
Science and climate
Raab has links with climate sceptics: he has sat on the board of the group Leave Means Leave with his fellow MP Owen Paterson, who is close to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a group denying climate science. Raab has consistently voted against measures to prevent climate change, including against setting a decarbonisation target for the UK within six months of June 2016 and to review it annually thereafter, and against requiring a strategy for carbon capture and storage for the energy industry.
Technology and internet
At a conference he gave as Brexit minister to the tech industry in 2018, Raab promised that the government would be “pursuing a global Brexit, an outward-looking Brexit and a tech Brexit”. He didn’t offer a precise definition, but praised the tech sector’s “productivity, innovation and dynamism” and said that the UK would remain “attractive to investors”. That’s great, but according to all experts, this won’t be the case under a no-deal Brexit, a scenario Raab is now actively pushing for by claiming that he will have “zero tolerance” for cabinet ministers unsupportive of his no-deal plans.
Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Hunt, previously the Health minister for six years, became foreign secretary after Boris Johnson’s departure. He campaigned to remain in the EU in 2016, but has since gone full-Brexiteer.
Science and climate
As foreign secretary, Hunt has said that climate change is a “slow-burn but with potentially disastrous consequences if we do nothing” and has declared that, as “the effects of climate change are fuelling conflict”, the UK must “drive forward the global response”. Yet he has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change and has criticised Greta Thunberg’s climate strike: “I welcome young people being involved in climate change issues. I don’t welcome quite so much them missing school to do so,” he has said.
Technology and internet
Hunt’s parliamentary page states that before politics, he was “an entrepreneur who set up two successful businesses” – one of them “a marketing consultancy firm based in the technology field”. This tech-savvy politician has called for extra funds to implement a “tech revolution” for the NHS’s survival and has praised “new tech bringing radical change in medicine”. Hunt has also said that the UK should “exercise a degree of caution” about Huawei and the influence of other Chinese tech companies: “We are right to have a degree of caution about the role of large Chinese companies because of the degree of control the Chinese state is able to exercise over them in the way that would not be possible if they were large western companies.”
Rory Stewart
Rory Stewart is the international development secretary. He backed Remain, has worked as a diplomat and for NGOs before joining parliament. He wrote a book about his solo trip in Afghanistan that became a New York Times bestseller. He vocally opposes a no-deal Brexit.
Science and climate
“I will double foreign aid spent on climate change fight”, Rory Stewart announced during the Tory leadership contest. Despite loving hedgehogs so much that he quote poems about the animals in parliamentary debates, Stewart has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change, including against requiring a strategy for carbon capture and storage for the energy industry and against setting a decarbonisation target for the UK within six months of June 2016.
Technology and internet
Rory Stewart rose to social media fame after announcing his leadership bid, tweeting his location on the campaign trail all over the UK with the hashtags #wheresrory #rorywalks and inviting locals to debate. In a recent clip, he sat down with LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, discussing how relevant Britain’s track-record in innovation is. In good news to the UK’s tech industry, Stewart is opposed to a no-deal Brexit.
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid was the business secretary from 2015 to 2016 and has been Home secretary since April 2018. He backed Remain in the referendum but has never made a secret of his Euroscepticism.
Science and climate
As the home secretary, Sajid Javid recently asked the police to use “the full force of the law” on Extinction Rebellion protesters as they disrupted traffic in London to attract attention on climate change. He has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change.
Technology and internet
Javid’s Online Harms white paper, published in April, is the Home secretary’s plan to put an end to self-regulation on internet platforms by introducing an independent regulator. “I warned the web giants. I told them that keeping our children safe is my no one priority as Home Secretary,” he said, citing Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among others.
“Social networks bring great joy and great comfort to a great many people, but we, as a government and a society, we cannot ignore the fact that individuals and groups around the world are using them to facilitate, encourage and commit some of the most vile and abhorrent crimes. (...) Yet, for some reason, some tech companies have long got away with the claim that they cannot possibly be expected to take any more responsibility for the safety of their customers. They’ll take your money, they’ll harvest your data, they’ll sell your details to advertisers, but protect you from harm? They say no can do.” As we outlined, from the implications for news websites and private messaging to its actual implementation, there are many problems with Javid’s plan.
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock replaced Hunt as the health secretary when the latter was promoted to the Foreign Office. Before that, he was in charge of the Department for Digital Culture Media & Sports. He campaigned for Remain but is close to Brexit-backing ministers.
Science and climate
As minister of State and Energy, he was criticised for flying back from a climate conference on a private jet (not a great look) and for accepting £18,000 from a climate sceptic (a worse look). Hancock has nevertheless made positive comments about tackling climate change, tweeting in 2018: “Hooray for the environment! 2017 was Britain’s greenest year ever, breaking 13 different renewable energy records #conservativesforconservation.” He has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change.
Technology and internet
A former economist for the Bank of England, Hancock used to work for his family’s computer software business. He is, quite famously, the first MP to have developed his own app… which was immediately mocked, and criticised because it collects absolutely all your data. As Health minister, he has said that getting the right tech for the NHS is “not about having the latest gizmos. It’s because the right technology saves lives. Every major technological leap, from penicillin, to vaccination, to MRI, has meant more lives saved.” He has launched his “tech vision to build the most advanced care system in the world”. Problem: it is doomed to fail. He holds the title of Britain's most-lobbied sitting MP, according to Transparency International.
James Cleverly
James Cleverly has campaigned for Brexit and resigned from his role as vice chair of the Tory party to start a position at the Department for Exiting the European Union in April. He was first elected as an MP in 2015.
Science and climate
Cleverly has repeatedly shown contempt for the protesters marching against climate change. On Twitter, he has mocked them, not so cleverly, with jokes such as this one: “Climate Campaigner: ‘Who wants to bunk-off school on Friday and join in with a climate change protest?’ School kid: ‘You had me at bunk-off school.’” He has also ranted against Extinction Rebellion protesters because they targeted the DLR, “one of the greenest forms of public transport”. According to TheyWorkForYou Cleverly has consistently voted against measures to prevent climate change.
Technology and internet
“No deal is better than no Brexit”, Cleverly has claimed. The tech industry gravely disagrees, with Tech for UK writing in their anti-Brexit letter to the PM: “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 (in whole or part) will tear apart the bedrock on which our industry operates and cause us grave harm.” To be fair to Cleverly, he is far from the only candidate toying with the idea of no deal. More below.
Sam Gyimah
Sam Gyimah is a former universities and science minister. He has been sitting on the Commons’ Science and Technology Committee since January. He is supporting a second referendum (the only Tory leadership candidate to do so) and has publicly said he would vote Remain.
Science and climate
Gyimah has called for international collaboration and encouraged Commonwealth scientiststo address global challenges such as climate change. In February 2018, as Science minister, he announced the investment of £38 million in the UK Space Agency to “improve disaster response and tropical disease control using space-based technologies”.
“The UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme will help developing countries tackle big issues like disaster relief and disease control,” he said. The project will use satellites to monitor unpredictable weather patterns in Rwanda, deforestation in Colombia, the risk of forest fires in Indonesia, and the impact of severe climate swings on Tanzania, Fiji and Vanuatu. Yet, Gyimah has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change.
Technology and internet
Gyimah quit from his role as science and universities minister in december 2018, after Theresa May’s decision to pull the UK out of the EU’s Galileo satellite project. He said that the row showed how the UK would be “hammered” in the Brexit negotiations: “The government is finally pulling out of frustrating negotiations over Galileo, the EU’s strategic Satellite Navigation system. The PM is right to call time on a negotiation that was stacked against us from the very beginning. But Galileo is only a foretaste of what’s to come under the Government’s Brexit deal.” He has written on his website about big tech and the “big responsibilities” it has to its users, and in the Telegraph about why “Britain must do more to make money from bright ideas in science and technology after Brexit”.
Gyimah has acknowledged the importance of international collaboration to research excellence in his speeches and has committed to spend 2.4 per cent of GDP on research by 2027, saying: “The challenges we will face in the years to come – from clean growth and an ageing population to the future of transport and the advancement of AI and robotics – will only be met by a concerted research and innovation effort.” He spoke at the 2018 WIRED Smarter event, where he praised technology’s ability to “change the world for the better” and said it’s “at the heart of what we want to do politically”.
Mark Harper
Mark Harper replaced Gavin Williamson as Tory whip when Williamson went to the Defence ministry last November. Despite being described as a Eurosceptic back in 2015, he backed Remain in 2016 and supports the UK leaving the EU with a deal – although no deal is not completely off the cards with him, either. He once broke his footfalling off a table while dancing in a bar.
Science and climate
He has told the New Statesman that “letting people have the maximum freedom to shape their own lives” is the default policy for a Conservative and that he doesn’t “want to live in a society where we’re trying to regulate everything. He believes this approach “could help deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050”. We’re not sure how, though. In 2010, he backed a bill proposal that would allow selling or leasing English public forests, saying it was an “exciting opportunity for community ownership”. But he is the MP for the Forest of Dean, and his constituents rebelled: Harper had to be removed by the police from a public meeting, which he described as a “baying mob”. Harper has acknowledged that “climate change is one of the most serious long-term threats that this country and this world faces, and has been at the top of the news agenda in recent weeks”; yet he has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change.
Technology and internet
Harper worked as an accountant for Intel until 2002, so he has at least some knowledge of how a tech company functions. There’s a whole section of his website on how it meets guidelines to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. That’s about all we know on his tech policies, but, hey, it’s better than nothing.
Kit Malthouse
Kit Malthouse is the housing minister. He is the mind behind the “Malthouse compromise”, an alleged plan to replace the Northern Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements”.
Science and climate
Kit Malthouse has consistently voted against measures to prevent climate change, including against requiring a strategy for carbon capture and storage for the energy industry and against setting a decarbonisation target for the UK in 2016.
Technology and internet
On Safer Internet Day this year, Malthouse said: “We cannot keep turning a blind eye to the problems present online. From cyber-security threats that can cause financial damage, to online harassment which is disproportionately vile to women.”
Esther McVey
McVey resigned from her position as Work and Pensions Secretary in November 2018, over Theresa May’s Brexit deal. She is a Brexiteer and was the first to declare her leadership bid.
Science and climate
Esther McVey has voted a mixture of for and against measures to prevent climate change. She voted to reform the energy market to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but voted against requiring the UK Green Investment Bank to support the reduction of UK carbon emissions by 2050.
Technology and internet
McVey has claimed that an “invisible border” in Ireland is doable: “The technology already exists to be able to put that in place,” she said. “When you talk about checks, the admin customs declaration is online; there’s already a border for currency and VAT, so we know the technology exists.” In March, she tweeted to her 36,000 followers, claiming that the UK would be forced to join the euro from next year. That is incorrect.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
