The heads of three major messaging apps have exclusively told The Standard that the Online Safety Bill, which is facing one of it’s final votes this week, will lead to the mass surveillance of every private online message and London’s reputation as a place to do business will be destroyed if the bill passes into law.

They also say Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can forget about the UK becoming a technology superpower if that happens, as tech firms will leave London and no one will want to start a business here.

Last week, the Government proposed a series of new amendments to the Online Safety Bill, which include the possibility of criminal liability for senior technology executives.

“It’s going to be an incredibly chilling effect on the whole London tech scene,” Elements’ chief executive and chief technology Matthew Hodgson told The Standard.

“If I’m going to start a company, I’m not going to do it in London anymore — I’ll go somewhere else because they’re not going to lock me up if someone decides to do something horrible to someone else on my platform.”