Matt Sinclair
The former adviser to Liz Truss now heads the UK chapter of the CCIA, an industry group that actively lobbies on behalf of its members at major technology companies. An economist who worked for more than six years at the influential think tank, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, before joining professional services giant Deloitte, Sinclair was brought in to assist Truss during her short-lived prime ministerial tenure and is well known for her staunchly free-market views, having previously argued for a smaller, less interventionist state.
Miriam Cates
Miriam Cates rose to become an influential MP under Sunak’s government, stoking culture war issues such as sex education in schools and concerns about “transgender ideology”. A vocal advocate of online safety, she spearheaded the campaign to ban smartphones for under-16s. Cates lost her seat in July’s election but has since moved on to become a presenter on GB News. She has said she plans to step back from politics to focus on media, but still writes for Conservative Home to lobby the Conservative party on her pet issues.
Ben Mascall
Mascall is one of the Conservative party’s most experienced spokespeople, having worked in a variety of government and party roles for nearly a decade, including director of strategic communications in Downing Street, deputy director of communications for the party during the 2015 election and adviser to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon in 2015. He also served as communications director for Rishi Sunak’s first (unsuccessful) leadership campaign, before joining Peter Thiel’s Palantir in August 2022 to help the controversial data company navigate the rough waters of winning a growing share of government contracts, including the NHS.
Sarah Jane Sewell
A consultant at Shearwater Global by day and director of Digital Tories by night, Sewell is currently working on James Cleverley’s leadership campaign. Sewell joined Digital Tories, a group that brings together technology policy experts within the party, in 2021 and has built up an impressive network there. She is a former assistant to Conservative MP Matt Warman and former Technology Minister and Conservative peer Saeed Kamal. She also worked on Liz Truss’ leadership campaign.
Resham Kotecha
A highly accomplished and multi-faceted man with a side career, Resham Kotecha is a current member of the Conservative party and someone to watch (he has already stood for parliament twice). He is currently head of policy at the Open Data Institute, a non-profit founded by Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt, and sits on the advisory board of the Smart Data Council, an organisation set up by the government to replicate the success of open banking in other sectors. He is also Head of Engagement at Women2Win, an organisation co-founded by former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May to increase the number of women elected to parliament, and runs his own public speaking training company, Podium Perfect. Woof!
