The twin resignations of Brexit secretary David Davis and foreign secretary Boris Johnson has kicked off a quick game of musical chairs within Theresa May’s cabinet. The result is relatively unknown MPs being reshuffled into powerful government positions.
Dominic Raab, erstwhile at housing and planning, was catapulted into the Brexit mire of DExEU; Jeremy Hunt, previously at health and social care, was promoted to the foreign office; and digital minister Matt Hancock, of Matt Hancock App fame, was slung into Hunt’s former chair. That merry-go-round left Jeremy Wright, who hasn’t tweeted since 2015 and has 283 followers, to step into the void as secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, or DCMS as it is better known.
"Set up my offical [sic] Twitter account," Wright tweeted on April 4, 2015. "I have since updated my Twitter Handle to comply with regulations. Please share," he implored two days later (five replies, eight retweets, four likes). But the success and qualifications of a politician, of course, should not be measured on social media engagement.
So why has Wright been put in charge of a department that oversees the UK’s technology sector, oft-used as a fanciful crutch to prop-up post-Brexit Britain? The answer likely lies somewhere between the lack of senior MPs available to parachute into ministerial roles and the government’s continued indifference towards the technology industry.
Since she arrived in Downing Street, Theresa May has gone about distancing herself from an industry that her predecessor, David Cameron, had been keen to embrace. In May’s Britain, startups were no longer cool. The government has since oscillated between treating the sector with indifference and cooing at it keenly.
In November 2017, after months of laying into technology as a great evil that must be tamed, May made a move to secure the strength of British tech post-Brexit. “I will back our world-class tech sector as we build an economy fit for the future,” she said at the time.
Then, in a hasty attempt to secure her government as it collapsed like an undercooked cake, May plucked Jeremy Wright from the back of the spice cupboard. The technology sector was, in a moment of absent-mindedness, dealt another blow. For May, tech remains little more than a useful and pliable pawn.
Since Maria Miller, who held Wright’s post from September 2012 to April 2014, no minister has stuck out the role for more than 18 months, with Sajid Javid, John Whittingdale, Karen Bradley and Matt Hancock all waltzing through the revolving DCMS door since. Such an important post ought to be entrusted to a politician of conviction and experience. And yet here we are again.
Wright served as attorney general for England and Wales from 2014 to 2018 and his political career to date has barely touched on his new DCMS role. But, from time to time, he has given hints. In June 2015, responding to a question from then Labour MP Keith Vaz about "the inability" of Facebook and Twitter to tackle Islamophobia and racism, Wright said that social media firms needed to "understand clearly that criminal law applies".
This is a similar to the line held by the Conservatives in recent years: technology companies are not outside the law and they must engage with government to tackle major issues. But that’s also a line that has led to Amber Rudd calling on WhatsApp to break encryption, a position that was widely derided by cybersecurity experts.
In 2017, Wright used his position as attorney general to question whether it would be prudent to tighten contempt of court laws and target Facebook and Twitter users who post about live criminal trials. Wright asked for examples of where "social media has had an impact" on court cases. A hard line on technology companies not running roughshod over the law is no bad thing, but Wright must ensure this is married with a deeper understanding from policymakers about how technology works. Hancock’s tenure, which reached its nadir when he launched his ill-advised, privacy nightmare of an app, was so brief as to be pointless.
Wright, who is MP for Kenilworth and Southam, campaigned for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union before the Brexit vote on June 23, 2016. His wider voting record also gives clues as to how he might approach his new post. Wright has consistently voted against increases in corporation tax, again suggesting that his time at DCMS will be a continuation of Hancock: pro business, but tech-skeptic.
He is also, based on his voting history, in favour of mass surveillance of communications, a position that has to an extent been backed up by his work as attorney general.
In May 2018, Wright said that Britain should name and shame foreign states that hire hackers to carry out cyberattacks. “If we accept that the challenges posed by cyber technology are too great for the existing framework of international law to bear, that cyberspace will always be a grey area, then we should expect cyberspace to continue to become a more dangerous place,” Wright said at the time. "Hostile actors cannot take action by cyber means without consequence." But attribution, of course, is often the hardest part of the puzzle when a major cyberattack hits.
As attorney general Wright has also made it clear that international law must keep up with the rapid rate of technological development or risk cyberspace becoming "lawless". But, overall, scant evidence of Wright’s stance on various key policy positions for digital, culture, media and sport hints that he was selected out of necessity rather than desire.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
