David Willetts

For the West End actor, see Dave Willetts.

The Right Honourable David Willetts MP
Minister for Universities and Science
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Lord Drayson
Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills
In office 2 July 2007 – 11 May 2010
Leader	David Cameron
Preceded by	Office Created
Succeeded by	Pat McFadden
Paymaster General
In office 20 July 1996 – 21 November 1996
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	David Heathcoat-Amory
Succeeded by	Michael Bates
Member of Parliament for Havant
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 April 1992
Preceded by	Ian Lloyd
Majority	12,160 (27.7%)
Personal details
Born	(1956-03-09) 9 March 1956 Birmingham, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Sarah Butterfield
Children	2
Alma mater	Christ Church College, Oxford

David Linsay Willetts (born 9 March 1956) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Havant since 1992 and the Minister for Universities and Science since 2010. He was previously the Paymaster General in 1996, and the Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills from 2007 to 2010.

Education

Willetts was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Willetts graduated with a first class degree.

Policy researcher

Having served as Nigel Lawson's private researcher,^{[citation needed]} Willetts took charge of the Treasury monetary policy division at 26 before moving over to Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit at 28. Aged 31, he subsequently took over the Centre for Policy Studies.

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 a few years later 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. Since leaving the DWP post, he has been recruited as an external consultant by the actuaries Punter Southall.

After 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 ruling out running for leader owing to a lack of support, commentators speculated that he was gunning for the post Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer position 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, and 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 more right-wing Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail were both 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. In this capacity, he attends the meetings of the Cabinet, although he is not a full member.

Willetts is in the unusual position of being a junior Conservative minister in a department headed by a Liberal Democrat minister. This has created some tension over which bits of his speeches are recognised as statements of BIS policy and which are not.

Feminism claim

In June 2011 Willetts said during the launch of the Government’s social mobility strategy that movement between the classes had “stagnated”. Willetts attributed this partly the entry of women into the workplace and universities for the lack of progress for men. “Feminism trumped egalitarianism,” he said, adding that women who would otherwise have been housewives had taken university places and well-paid jobs that could have gone to ambitious working-class men. 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,” he said. He said that “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.”

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.

"Two brains"

He has the nickname "Two Brains". He is currently a visiting professor at the Cass Business School, a board member of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford (part of the University of Oxford), Willetts is the author of several books on conservatism, including "Why Vote Conservative" (1996) and "Modern Conservatism" (1992), as well as numerous articles. 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" [D. Willetts, "Civic Conservatism", SMF (1994)]. 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. During an interview with The Spectator, he was referred to as 'the real father of Cameronism'.

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 and member's interests

Willetts is married to the artist Sarah Butterfield. The couple have one daughter and one son. His wealth is estimated at £1.9m, and his declarations for the Register of Members' Financial Interests may be viewed here.

References

For Willetts' roles in the 1980s–1990s as a welfare specialist:

• Timmins, Nicholas (2001). The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State. ISBN 0-00-710264-X. 

Bibliography

• Willetts, David (1991). Happy Families? Four Points to a Conservative Family Policy. ISBN 1-870265-62-9. 
• Willetts, David (1992). Modern Conservatism. ISBN 0-14-015477-9. 
• Willetts, David (1992). Welfare to Work. ISBN 1-874097-18-6. 
• Willetts, David (1996). Blair's Gurus. ISBN 0-14-026304-7. 
• Willetts, David (1997). Why Vote Conservative?. ISBN 0-14-026304-7. 
• Willetts, David (1997). Blair's Gurus. ISBN 1-897969-47-3. 
• Willetts, David (1998). Who do we think we are?. ISBN 1-897969-81-3. 
• Willetts, David (2003). Left Out, Left Behind. ISBN 0-9545611-0-4. 
• Willetts, David (2003). Old Europe? Demographic Change and Pension Reform. ISBN 1-901229-47-5. 
• Willetts, David (2010). The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future – And Why They Should Give It Back. ISBN 1-84887-231-3. 

External links

• David Willetts MP official constituency website
• Profile at the Conservative Party
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Article archive at The Guardian
• The Tories don't have to make a false choice between roots or freedom, David Willetts, The Times, 2 June 2005
• Works by or about David Willetts in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• David Willetts collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Profile: David Willetts BBC News, 22 October 2002

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ian Lloyd	Member of Parliament for Havant 1992–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by David Heathcoat-Amory	Paymaster General 1996	Succeeded by Michael Bates
Preceded by Office Created	Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills 2007–2010	Succeeded by Pat McFadden
Preceded by The Lord Drayson	Minister for Universities and Science 2010–present	Incumbent