O'Really?

In case you missed it, the people of the United Kingdom have just democratically elected 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to run their government for the next five years [1,2]. How many of these newly elected MPs have science backgrounds? Like many, I was inspired by Mark Henderson’s book The Geek Manifesto [3] back in 2012 after reading an article which argued that (quote) “with just one British MP having a scientific background, the people who run the country clearly need some expert advice”. So when I heard the news that the MP concerned, Julian Huppert (a.k.a. the “only scientist in the commons”) had lost his Cambridge seat, I lamented accordingly on twitter:

My lament was retweeted quite a bit, then Roger Highfield at the Science Museum in London challenged the interwebs to find if it really was true:

The sciencey MP factoid was quickly questioned by some random bloke on twitter called Richard Dawkins:

… and lots of people weighed in (see below)  – as they usually do on twitter. Thankfully Margaret Harris at Physics World, set the record straight and drew attention to the impressively large Physics Vote. Viva La Relativity!

Who knew there were so many physicists involved in the election? Not me. Turns out, the article about only one science MP, is a bit misleading. Julian Huppert was the only MP in the last government to be a “primary science worker” – that’s not quite the same as studying science at university. Julian was the only MP in the last government with scientific background at PhD level:

Members of the UK Parliament with science and technology degrees in 2015

So with help from twitter, the list of MPs with science degrees looks something like this (for a 2017 update see MPs to watch via the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE)):

1. Heidi Allen MP for South Cambridgeshire (BSc in Astrophysics)
2. Steve Baker MP for Wycombe (BSc Aerospace Engineering, MSc Computer Science)
3. Gavin Barwell MP for Croydon Central (BA Natural Sciences)
4. Margaret Beckett MP for Derby South (BSc Metallurgy)
5. Karen Bradley MP for Staffordshire Moorlands (BSc Mathematics)
6. Tom Brake MP for Carshalton and Wallington (BSc Physics)
7. Julian Brazier MP for Canterbury (BA Mathematics)
8. Andrew Bridgen MP for North West Leicestershire (BSc Genetics)
9. Alan Brown MP for Kilmarnock (BSc Civil Engineering)
10. Therese Coffey MP for Suffolk Coastal (BSc & PhD Chemistry)
11. David Davis MP for Haltemprice & Howden (BSc Computer Science)
12. Robert Flello MP for Stoke-on-Trent South (BSc Chemistry)
13. Liam Fox MP for North Somerset (Bachelor of Medicine)
14. Mark Hendrick MP for Central Lancashire (BSc Eletrical Engineering)
15. Carol Monaghan MP for Glasgow North West (BSc Physics)
16. Liz McInnes MP for Heywood & Middleton (BSc Biochemistry)
17. Chi Onwurah MP for Newcastle Central (BEng Electrical Engineering)
18. Chris Philp MP for  Croydon South (BSc Physics)
19. Alok Sharma MP for Reading West (BSc Physics & Electronics)
20. Alec Shelbrooke MP for Elmet & Rothwell (BEng Mechanical Engineering)
21. Graham Stringer MP for Blackley (BSc Chemistry)
22. Stephen Timms MP for East Ham (MA Mathematics)
23. Philippa Whitford MP for Ayrshire Central (Bachelor of Medicine)
24. Sarah Wollaston MP for Totnes (Bachelor of Medicine)
25. Valerie Vaz MP for Walsall South (BSc Biochemistry)
26. Nadhim Zahawi MP for Stratford-on-Avon (BSc Chemical Engineering)

So there are at least 26 MPs out of 650 total who have some kind of STEM educational backgrounds, and hopefully several more. Thankfully, much better than none – but still not that high considering the proportion of STEM in the general population. This article MP’s Degrees: What do they know? claims there are many more scientific MPs, but it depends what you mean by Science of course. Over at the Science Campaign, they have counted 83 politicians with a background or “interest in” science. Doesn’t everyone have an interest in Science & Technology at some level? If so, there are 650 out of 650 MPs (100%) with an interest in science and technology then? As for MPs who have an actual science education, your mileage may vary, especially if you think Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) are all sciences. Wannabe sciences? Yes. Actual Sciences? No.

In an ideal world where politicians create policies based on evidence, rather than finding evidence to fit their policies, how many scientists and technologists do we actually need in our government? Would it actually help make for better policies?

[Update: Jo Johnson MP for Orpington (BA Modern History), is the newly appointed Minister for Universities and Science [4], a post formerly held by David Willetts. Apparently, Johnson doesn’t know anything about Science. Does it matter?]

References

1. Castelvecchi, D. (2015). Why the polls got the UK election wrong Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature.2015.17511
2. Gibney, E. (2015). What the UK election results mean for science Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature.2015.17506
3. Anon (2012). Books in brief: The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters Nature, 485 (7397), 173-173 DOI: 10.1038/485173a
4. Gibney, E., & Van Noorden, R. (2015). UK researchers fret about downgrading of science minister role Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature.2015.17535

Thanks everyone who weighed in on twitter:

https://twitter.com/cawhitworth/status/596621697341620225

https://twitter.com/MShapland/status/596578741544976384