In 2022 Rishi Sunak, when he was chancellor, bounced on to the stage at London Tech Week. Waiting in the wings, a senior American technology executive looked on, shaking his head admiringly: “Man, I wish we had politicians like him back home.”

Further cementing his tech creds, Sunak opened London Tech Week 2023 in conversation with Demis Hassabis, of Google DeepMind. He topped off the year with a discussion with Elon Musk after the inaugural AI Safety Summit. Tech bros love a fireside chat.

To the disappointment of organisers, who had been told it was on the cards until the last moment, Sunak was missing from this year’s event. With the election looming, the “brotherhood” might have to get used to his absence. “He could have turned up for some light relief among friends,” one industry executive laughed, gesturing around Kensington Olympia. “This is his brotherhood.”

Sunak may have screwed up royally over his decision to leave the D-Day celebrations early, but when it comes to technology he has barely put a foot wrong. Yes, the government’s banging of the drum to make Britain a “science and technology superpower by 2030” has felt comically overblown at times, but there has been no doubting its commitment to the sector.

The UK has led the way on AI safety. The government has stood up for technology against the competition watchdog, directing the latter to “think of the economy” when it makes decisions, a tacit wrist-slap after a block on Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. It kept up momentum in the quantum sector, which recently won a second decade of funding to the tune of £2.5 million.

It hasn’t all been rosy, of course, but Sunak, along with Jeremy Hunt and Michelle Donelan, has taken a personal interest in supporting technology. Quotes from the prime minister are regularly featured on press releases from American companies announcing British investments. Like the admiring executive at London Tech Week 2022, Silicon Valley loves him. He fits right in.

There has been a steady drip of US technology companies expanding in the UK, such as Coreweave, Workday, Stripe and OpenAI. The government has done a good job of engaging with them, so much so, in fact, that some privately have admitted scheduling their announcements around “what No 10 wants”.

Will this emphasis on supporting technology continue under Labour? As one in the opposition camp has put it, “speaking the language of the tech bros doesn’t come naturally” to them, but the party does claim that it “gets” the importance of technology more than ever. A letter from Labour is doing the rounds of technology companies, urging them to sign up and publicly support Sir Keir Starmer. It points to Labour’s “focus on creating growth”, its “commitment to being a reliable partner with business” and on its focus on “improving access to finance for start-ups and scale-ups”.

Thus far, the mood in technology towards Labour is a little suspicious. Companies are worried about changes to capital gains tax, employment law and carried interest (the share of profits that backers receive from successful investments). It doesn’t help that a Labour “tech day” planned for June 3 was canned because of the election.

One American technology group said Labour has been “sucking it all in” but not saying very much, which was “frustrating”. Others have said that “there is a vibe they are saying the right things, but the detail isn’t there” and that “they have some catching up to do”.

That may change this week. Peter Kyle, the shadow technology secretary, is due to take the stage at London Tech Week on Wednesday and Labour’s manifesto publication is imminent. One secret weapon is Darren Jones, who formerly chaired the business select committee and who founded Labour Digital.

It is likely that Labour will focus on AI safety and on bringing technology into public services. Beyond that, the party remains a bit of an unknown with many in the sector, which is vastly more significant than it was when Labour was last in power. The party does not have anyone who slides into Silicon Valley’s DMs like Sunak.

On Thursday, Labour’s manifesto rhetoric will be picked apart and no doubt run through ChatGPT-4o. As for Sunak, he may yet opt for a career change along the lines of Nick Clegg, who went to Meta, and to reappear on the stage of London Tech Week 2025 as a tech bro himself. They would welcome him with open arms.

Katie Prescott is Technology Business Editor of The Times