Ex-government adviser calls for a trade union for startups

Speaking at a 3 Beards Tech City event in Old Street earlier this week, Rohan Silva – former technology adviser to David Cameron – described entrepreneurs as woefully under-represented in Parliament. His solution? A trade union should be established to champion startups in Whitehall.

 “Politicians do care about startups but they’re dispersed everywhere, how do you find them?” he asked. “They don’t have lobbying people, they don’t have public affairs people, they’re not in and out of Whitehall the whole time.

“Small businesses are generally massively failed by the representative groups that are supposed to stand for them. There should be a trade union for entrepreneurs and the voice of entrepreneurs is much diminished as a result [of there not being one].”

He also attacked the dominance of government contracts by a few large firms, according to the Evening Standard.

Silva worked under George Osborne as an economic adviser, as well as a policy analyst for the Treasury, before becoming a senior technology advisor to David Cameron. It was Silva who was responsible for the government’s Tech City initiative supporting startups in east London. And it was Silva who helped to create Britain’s transparent open-data regime.

Silva left working for Number 10 in April to join venture capital firm Index Ventures.

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