David Willetts

The Right Honourable The Lord Willetts PC FRS HonFRSC HonFREng FAcSS
Official portrait, 2020
Minister of State for Universities and Science
In office 11 May 2010 – 14 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	David Lammy
Succeeded by	Greg Clark
Paymaster General
In office 20 July 1996 – 21 November 1996
Leader	John Major
Preceded by	David Heathcoat-Amory
Succeeded by	Michael Bates
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office 6 July 1995 – 28 November 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Andrew Mitchell
Succeeded by	Liam Fox
Shadow Cabinet positions Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills In office 2 July 2007 – 19 January 2009 Leader David Cameron Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Kenneth Clarke (Business, Innovation and Skills) Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills In office 8 December 2005 – 2 July 2007 Leader David Cameron Preceded by David Cameron Succeeded by Michael Gove (Children, Schools and Families) Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry In office 6 May 2005 – 8 December 2005 Leader Michael Howard Preceded by James Arbuthnot (Trade) Stephen O'Brien (Industry) Succeeded by Alan Duncan Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Social Security (1999–2001) In office 15 June 1999 – 6 May 2005 Leader William Hague Iain Duncan Smith Michael Howard Preceded by Iain Duncan Smith Succeeded by Malcolm Rifkind Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment In office 1 June 1998 – 15 June 1999 Leader William Hague Preceded by Stephen Dorrell Succeeded by Theresa May
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 October 2015 Life Peerage
Member of Parliament for Havant
In office 9 April 1992 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Ian Lloyd
Succeeded by	Alan Mak
Personal details
Born	David Linsay Willetts (1956-03-09) 9 March 1956 (age 69) Birmingham, England, UK
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Sarah Butterfield
Education	King Edward's School, Birmingham
Alma mater	University of Oxford (BA)
Website	www.davidwilletts.co.uk

David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, PC, FRS, HonFRSC, HonFREng, FAcSS (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.^[1] He is president of the Resolution Foundation.

Born in Birmingham, Willetts studied philosophy, politics and economics at Christ Church, Oxford. After working for Nigel Lawson as a private researcher, 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, 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 conservativism's focus on a softer social agenda has led journalist Fraser Nelson to call Willetts " The real father of Cameronism"