Badenoch appoints Alan Mak as shadow science secretary

New Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed ally Alan Mak to shadow the science and technology brief as her new team continues to take shape.

The MP for Havant moves from the shadow Treasury role he has held since the July general election to take on the post, shadowing Peter Kyle, who holds the position in the Labour government.

He replaces Andrew Griffith, who was appointed by former prime minister Rishi Sunak to the shadow science role while the Tories elected a new leader.

Mr Mak joins Laura Trott, who on 4 November was appointed shadow education secretary and was immediately thrown into action, speaking in a parliamentary debate after her counterpart, Bridget Phillipson, announced that she was raising university tuition fees by £285.

Mr Mak held several roles in the Treasury in the government of Boris Johnson before being moved by Mr Sunak to the Cabinet Office, where he was the parliamentary undersecretary of state for the investment security unit.

Mr Mak’s website lists his main policy interests as “Britain’s leadership of the fourth industrial revolution; education and skills and social mobility”.

As shadow minister, he will have responsibility for scrutinising the government’s work on funding university research, which sits within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The fledgling department was created by Mr Sunak in February 2023 to signal the country’s seriousness about becoming a “science superpower”, but it has been criticised for its low profile under former minister Michelle Donelan.

Since taking the position in government, Mr Kyle has declared that the “war on universities is over” and emphasised the role of institutions in driving growth via research and innovation.

It was speculated ahead of Rachel Reeves’ first budget last week that the department would be hit with a real-terms cut in income as the costs of associating to Horizon Europe were “tucked in” to its spending.

Ms Reeves eventually handed the department further funding to cover the extra costs it faced, which was expected to cushion some of the impact, at least in the short term.

A law graduate from Peterhouse, Cambridge, Mr Mak was the first in his family to attend university. He has held the seat once occupied by influential former science minister Lord Willetts since 2015 but only just secured a fourth term at the last election, winning by 92 votes.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com