Spurned ex-shadow minister takes science select committee role

Chi Onwurah, a former Labour shadow minister who missed out on a role in government, has been elected as chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee, while Helen Hayes will chair the Education Select Committee.

Ms Onwurah was passed over for a role in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in favour of heavy hitter Lord Vallance of Balham, despite shadowing the brief for 11 of the 14 years the party spent in opposition.

Having been shadow minister for innovation and science from 2010 until 2013, she was made shadow minister for industrial strategy, science and innovation under Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 until 2020, and was again appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as shadow minister for science, research and digital from 2020 until 2024.

But after his party’s landslide win in the July general election, Sir Keir opted to put Lord Vallance, a former chief scientific adviser well known for his role during the Covid pandemic, into the department as he sought to inject experience into his fledgling government.

An engineer who attended Imperial College London and Manchester Business School, Ms Onwurah defeated her fellow Labour MP Dawn Butler by 377 votes to 183 in the election and takes over from Greg Clark, the Conservative former universities minister who led the committee in the last parliament.

In a statement submitted as part of the nomination process, Ms Onwurah said she would use the role to prioritise building links between science, innovation and growth and focus on what she called “neglected or underperforming areas of scientific policy” such as diversity in STEM and research reproducibility.

Ms Hayes, the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, is less well known to the higher education sector, having been a shadow minister for children and early years in opposition.

She was elected as the education committee chair after two rounds of voting, defeating Sharon Hodgson and Marie Tidball, a University of Oxford researcher and one of a number of academics elected to parliament in the most recent election.

Ms Hayes, a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, promised “an ambitious programme of inquiries”, including one that would look at “a sustainable future for our universities and students”.

She said she was “honoured” to have been elected and said the committee “will continue to champion the interests of children, young people and parents in every corner of England and from every background, as well as adults who seek to retrain and learn new skills”.

Matt Western, who shadowed the higher education brief in opposition but was not given the role in government, missed out again in the select committee elections, losing to Liam Byrne in his bid to head the business and trade committee. 

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com