#19

Ben Warner

10 Downing Street

Special adviser

As right-hand man to Dominic Cummings, Ben Warner played a key role in the data-focused policy approach of Number Ten during the time Cummings was there. Warner served in the Number Ten policy unit, advising on artificial intelligence and technology, and attended SAGE meetings with Cummings. A PhD holder in a seriously pointy-headed branch of science, it’s easy to see why Warner’s powers of prediction and use of technology were attractive to those at a senior level – his projection for the Conservatives in the 2019 election was that they would win 364 seats. They won 365.