Microsoft denies employee's claim that Brexit could change UK datacentre strategy

Microsoft's UK government affairs manager claims the vendor could reconsider its UK investment if import tariffs change

Microsoft has distanced itself from comments made by a UK employee that the vendor could scrap its UK datacentre commitments if Brexit causes import tariffs to soar.

The firm launched its first three UK datacentres last year and has pledged to stand by its investment in the UK, despite Brexit uncertainty.

However, Microsoft's UK government affairs manager Owen Larter has cast doubts on Microsoft's intentions - claiming it could pull the plug on its UK datacentres if changes to import tariffs are made.

Speaking during a webinar for Voices of Innovation - a community of Microsoft partners and technology professionals - Larter said: "We're really keen to avoid import tariffs on any hardware.

"Going back to the datacentre example, we're looking to build out our datacentres at a pretty strong lick in the UK, because the market is doing very well.

"If all of a sudden there are huge imports on server racks from China or from Eastern Europe, where a lot of them are actually assembled, that might change our investment decisions and perhaps we build out our datacentres across other European countries."

Microsoft poured cold water on Larter's claims in a post on its website, saying it does not share Larter's opinion.

"The comments reported today by a Microsoft employee were not reflective of the company's view," the statement read.

"As we have said both before and after the EU referendum vote, Microsoft's commitment to the UK is unchanged. In particular, those customers in our UK datacentres should continue to rely on Microsoft's significant investment plans there.

"We have more than 5,000 highly qualified people working in fields including support, marketing, gaming, communications, cybersecurity and computer science research. We've built a global centre of excellence for the development of artificial intelligence and other computing disciplines.

"We've also worked in partnership with innovators, entrepreneurs and people with a passion for technology to help to create a thriving partner network of around 25,000 British businesses. Most recently we've just launched some of our most innovative technology, HoloLens, here in the UK and established a research group in Cambridge to support its evolution."