David Willetts

David Lindsay Willetts, Baron Willetts (born 9 March 1956) is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for Universities and Science from 2010 until July 2014 and became a member of the House of Lords in 2015. He was appointed chair of the UK Space Agency's board in April 2022 and chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office in April 2025. He is president of the Resolution Foundation.

Born in Birmingham, Willetts studied philosophy, politics and economics at Christ Church, Oxford. After joining the Treasury as an official in 1978 and serving as Nigel Lawson's private secretary, Willetts moved to Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit. At age 31, Willetts became head of the Centre for Policy Studies, before entering the House of Commons for Havant at the 1992 general election. He was quickly appointed to a number of positions before being appointed Paymaster General in 1996. During this period, Willetts gained the nickname "Two Brains". However, he was later forced to resign later that year after it was found that he had "dissembled" in his evidence to the Standards and Privileges Committee over whether pressure was put onto an earlier investigation into Conservative MP Neil Hamilton.

Willetts returned to the Conservative frontbench after the party's defeat in the 1997 general election, serving as Shadow Education Secretary before becoming Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. Following the 2005 election, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and then backed David Davis in the 2005 Conservative leadership election. Despite this, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills in David Cameron's shadow cabinet, later becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Following the 2010 general election, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Willetts as the Minister of State for Universities and Science, attending Cabinet, where he pushed forwards with the policy of increasing the cap on tuition fees in England and Wales and sold student loans to Erudio Student Loans, removing £160m from the public debt. Willetts stepped down at the 2015 general election, and was made a life peer in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.

Willetts has pioneered the idea of "civic conservatism", the concept of focusing on the institutions between state and individuals as a policy concern rather than thinking only of individuals and the state. Civic conservatism's focus on a softer social agenda has led journalist Fraser Nelson to call Willetts "The real father of Cameronism".

Education

Willetts was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with a first-class degree.

Policy researcher Having served as Nigel Lawson's Private Secretary, Willetts took charge of the Treasury monetary policy division at 26 before moving over to Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit at 28. He subsequently took over the Centre for Policy Studies, aged 31.

Paul Foot wrote in Private Eye that in a 1993 document called The Opportunities for Private Funding in the NHS, published by the Social Market Foundation and financed by private healthcare company BUPA, Willetts provided the "intellectual thrust" for private finance initiatives (PFIs) in the National Health Service.

First period in government

Aged 36, Willetts entered Parliament in 1992 as the MP for Havant. He quickly established himself in Parliament, becoming a Whip, a Cabinet Office Minister, and then Paymaster General in his first term (when that role was split between the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury as a policy co-ordination role). During this period Willetts gained "Two Brains" as a nickname, a monicker reportedly coined by The Guardian's former political editor Michael White. However, Willetts was forced to resign from the latter post by the Standards and Privileges Committee over an investigation into Neil Hamilton in 1996, when it found that he had "dissembled" in his evidence to the Committee over whether pressure was put onto an earlier investigation into Hamilton.

Shadow cabinet Despite the resignation, Willetts was able to return to the shadow front bench in 1998 while William Hague was Leader of the Opposition, initially serving in the shadow cabinet as Shadow Education Secretary before becoming Shadow Social Security (later Shadow Work and Pensions) Secretary. He carved out a reputation as an expert on pensions and benefits. After leaving the DWP post, he was recruited as an external consultant by the actuaries Punter Southall.

Following the 2005 election, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the shadow cabinet under Michael Howard. In August 2005, after Willets ruled out running for leader owing to a lack of support, commentators speculated that he was gunning for the post of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and would cut a deal with either David Davis or David Cameron. On 15 September he confirmed his support for Davis, at that time the bookies' favourite. Willetts, a centrist moderniser, went to ground following the announcement of the Davis tax plan since it was widely speculated that he disagreed with the seemingly uncosted and widely derided tax plan and found it impossible to defend. Davis then lost the candidacy race to Cameron.

Following Cameron's win, Willetts was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills in Cameron's first shadow cabinet in December 2005, the role Cameron had vacated, later becoming Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. His title became Shadow Minister for Universities and Skills since Gordon Brown's merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform into the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in June 2009.

On 19 May 2007, Willetts made a controversial speech on grammar schools in which he defended the existing Conservative Party policy of not reintroducing grammar schools. The speech received a mixed reception. The analysis was applauded by The Guardian and The Times. However, The Daily Telegraph was strongly critical of the speech, which was unpopular with some Conservative Party activists. The speech was made more controversial when David Cameron weighed into the argument, backing Willetts' speech and describing his critics as "delusional", accusing them of "splashing around in the shallow end of the educational debate" and of "clinging on to outdated mantras that bear no relation to the reality of life".

The Department for Education and Skills was abolished by the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who established two new departments. On 2 July 2007, Cameron reshuffled Willetts down to the junior of the two departments: the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Second period in government Following the 2010 general election, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Willetts as the Minister of State for Universities and Science.(attending Cabinet)

Feminism claim In June 2011, Willetts said during the launch of the Government's social mobility strategy that movement between the classes had "stagnated" over the past 40 years, and Willetts attributed this partly to the entry of women into the workplace and universities for the lack of progress for men. "Feminism trumped egalitarianism", he said . He went on to say that, "One of the things that happened over that period was that the entirely admirable transformation of opportunities for women meant that with a lot of the expansion of education in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the first beneficiaries were the daughters of middle-class families who had previously been excluded from educational opportunities [...] And if you put that with what is called 'assortative mating' – that well-educated women marry well-educated men – this transformation of opportunities for women ended up magnifying social divides. It is delicate territory because it is not a bad thing that women had these opportunities, but it widened the gap in household incomes because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well-educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated".

Tuition fees and student loan debts As the minister responsible for universities, Willetts was an advocate and spokesperson for the coalition government's policy of increasing the cap on tuition fees in England and Wales from £3,225 to £9,000 per year.

In November 2013, Willetts announced the sale of student loans to Erudio Student Loans – a debt collection consortium – removing £160m from public debt but ignoring the implications for former students. As Universities Minister he marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Robbins Report with a pamphlet proposing the end of controls on the number of students to be admitted to each university – subsequently announced in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement of December 2013.

Science Minister As Science Minister Willetts protected the science budget from proposed cuts and secured a ring-fenced five-year settlement. He created the network of Catapults, as proposed in reports by Herman Hauser and James Dyson. He secured a mission to the Space Station for Tim Peake. He identified the eight great technologies which were then funded with £600m over five years. He negotiated the first systematic use of overseas development funding for research partnerships with emerging scientific powers, the Newton Fund.

Peerage and further ventures In July 2014, Willetts announced that he would not contest the next general election, saying that "after more than 20 years the time has come to move onto fresh challenges." In October 2014, Willetts was appointed a visiting professor at King's College London. It was announced that he was to be a life peer in the 2015 Dissolution Honours and was created Baron Willetts, of Havant in the County of Hampshire, on 16 October 2015.

In June 2015, Willetts was appointed executive chair of the think tank the Resolution Foundation. He was Chair of the British Science Association from 2015 to 2018. He served on the Board of UKRI from its creation in 2018 to 2024. In May 2018 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. In December 2018 he became Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology. In February 2022 he was appointed a director of the Synbioven investment fund. In April 2022 he was appointed chair of the board of the UK Space Agency. In early 2019, he co-founded the group Right to Vote.

Free votes record According to the Public Whip analyses, Willetts was strongly in favour of an elected House of Lords and was strongly against the ban on fox hunting. TheyWorkForYou additionally records that, amongst other things, Willetts was strongly in favour of the Iraq War, strongly in favour of an investigation into it, moderately against equal gay rights, and very strongly for replacing Trident.

Other interests Following his decision to stand down at the 2015 General Election, Willetts joined the Resolution Foundation in Summer 2015. He Chaired the Foundation's Intergenerational Commission between 2016 and 2018, and is now President of the Resolution Foundation, along with its Intergenerational Centre. He is currently a visiting professor at King's College London where he works with the Policy Institute at King's, a board member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and an honorary fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. On 9 February 2018, the University of Leicester announced they had elected David Willetts as successor to Bruce Grocott to become their new chancellor a post he held until 2023.

Willetts is the author of several books on conservatism, including "Why Vote Conservative" (1996) and "Modern Conservatism" (1992), as well as numerous articles. His book "The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - and Why they should Give it Back" was published in 2010 with a second updated edition in 2019. "A University Education" was published in 2017. He was a founding signatory in 2005 of the Henry Jackson Society principles, advocating a proactive approach to the spread of liberal democracy across the world, including when necessary by military intervention. He is an honorary member of Conservative Friends of Poland.

Civic conservatism

Willetts has pioneered the idea of "civic conservatism". This is the idea of focusing on the institutions between the state and individuals as a policy concern (rather than merely thinking of individuals and the state as the only agencies) and is one of the principles behind the increasing support in the Conservative Party's localist agenda and its emphasis on voluntary organisations. Willetts civic conservatism moves away from the "hard-edged" nature of Thatcherism to a softer social agenda. During an interview with The Spectator, he was referred to as 'the real father of Cameronism' by Fraser Nelson.

Fourteen years after the publication of "Civic Conservatism" Willetts gave the inaugural Oakeshott Memorial Lecture to the London School of Economics in which he made an attempt to explain how game theory can be used to help think about how to improve social capital. The lecture was described by the Times as "an audacious attempt by the Conservative Party's leading intellectual to relate a new Tory narrative".

Civic conservatism, like free market economics, proceeds from deep-seated individual self-interest towards a stable cooperation. It sets the Tories the task not of changing humanity but of designing institutions and arrangements that encourage our natural reciprocal altruism.

Personal life Willetts is married to artist Sarah Butterfield. The couple have one daughter, born 1988, and one son, born 1992. His wealth in 2009 was estimated at £1.9m.

Honours Willetts was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 2010, giving him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" and after ennoblement the post nominal letters "PC" for life.

Scholastic University degrees

Location Date School Degree Christ Church, Oxford First-class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) in PPE

Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships

Location Date School Position 21 October 2014 King's College London Visiting Professor July 2018March 2023 University of Leicester Chancellor

Honorary degrees

Location Date School Degree 21 November 2014 University of Bedfordshire Doctor of Arts (D.Arts) 17 July 2016 University of Leicester Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) 4 July 2017 University of Bath Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) 2017 Richmond, The American International University in London Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) 2017 University of Chester Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)

Memberships and fellowships Country Date Organisation Position 2014 Academy of Social Sciences Fellow (FAcSS) 2016 Academy of Medical Sciences Honorary Fellow (FMedSci) 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry Honorary Fellow (HonFRSC) 2018 Royal Society Honorary Fellow (FRS) 2023 Royal Academy of Engineering Honorary Fellow (FREng)

Published works