Daniel Zeichner MP has spoken out about the threat to science funding ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review in a Parliamentary debate, calling for a commitment on science spending and warning a tipping point is being reached.

Back in 2010 the  publicly funded science budget was ring-fenced and frozen but Britain’s public spend on science is now the smallest of all the G8 nations.

In his speech Mr Zeichner mentioned the Cambridge based Babraham Research Institute, MRC Laboratory of  Molecular Research in Cambridge, Gurdon Institute and Astra Zeneca, and warned that in each case, threats to future science funding put key research at risk.

Mr Zeichner quoted evidence from the Babraham Research Institute who recently warned: “the current level of funding will not sustain the UK’s existing science and research capability, whilst any reduction would be extremely damaging, and that world leading scientists will leave the UK for other countries.

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “Failure to commit to a reasonable level of public investment in research is bad for science, bad for Cambridge and bad for Britain. If we are going to truly to win the race to the top, we need a bigger knowledge economy, with high-skilled, well-paid jobs.”