Three of the world’s largest technology companies have met with government ministers in London to seek assurances about the impact of a no-deal Brexit on jobs and investment in the industry, the Telegraph has learned.

UK chiefs of Microsoft, Facebook and Google used the meeting on Wednesday morning to express mounting concern over the potential impact on staff visas, rules on data sharing and UK research and education.

Sources with knowledge of the meeting said that it was attended by Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Digital Minister Margot James, and Baroness Fairhead from the Department for International Trade.

The closed door talks came just days before the Chancellor is due to deliver the Budget, amid growing speculation over the possibility of a new digital tax on the technology giants.

Google’s UK head Ronan Harris is understood to have asked ministers about the potential impact of Brexit on laws around the transfer of data. Google’s advertising business relies heavily upon retaining user data, and Brexit will see the government have to form a new data-sharing agreement with the European Union.

In 2016, the EU formed a new “Privacy Shield” agreement with the US to govern the transfer of data between the two continents. Technology executives raised this agreement in the meeting and asked ministers about the progress of the UK’s own data negotiations with the US.