Two more runners join e-envoy race

High-level support has emerged for Richard Barrington - the current director of industry in the office of the e-envoy while Thomas Power, the founder of education network Ecademy, has also joined the list.

Simon Moores, director of the Research Group, is supporting Barrington's bid. He said: "Richard is on secondment to the Cabinet Office from Sun Microsystems, so he's had extensive experience of being an e-vangelist. He's also been working with the team in the office of the e-envoy for some time, so he knows how the political process works."

Ann Steward, the head of e-government in the office of the e-envoy, is already a frontrunner for the post, as is Jim Norton, chairman of the Institute of Directors.

Norton hasn't ruled himself out of the running, but said: "I would be happy with Richard or with Ann. My only worry with her is that she doesn't know the industry as well, but then with Richard the worry is just the opposite - he's not enough of a government insider. Alex's skills were all about being the supreme insider, but he didn't have the skills to proselytise to industry."

Moores added: "There are really three choices: either you choose a technologist, like Richard, or a political appointment, like Ann Steward. Or you could choose a cabinet minister, which could be Patricia Hewitt. But I suspect that is as attractive as giving someone responsibility for the Millennium Dome."

Power said the appointment should be someone from outside government and someone who uses the technology they intend to evangelise.

He said: "Over the next 10 years, it's quite possible for Britain to move from fourth in the G7 to second. And the way we're going to do it is by leading on the internet and leading on broadband."

Another outsider with political ambitions is Rene Carayol, former IT director at IPC Magazines.

According to the Cabinet Office, the civil service post will be openly contested and applications will be accepted soon.