Donelan apologises for sharing UKRI letter online after payout

Michelle Donelan, the UK science secretary, has apologised for the public nature of her “intervention” against members of UK Research and Innovation’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) advisory group, conceding she could have contacted the organisation “in confidence” rather than tweeting her concerns.

Appearing before the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, Ms Donelan raised the subject of the affair, in which the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology paid £15,000 of damages on her behalf to settle a legal dispute with an academic whom the minister had wrongly accused of expressing support for Hamas. Ms Donelan - who also told the committee there was no "crisis" in university funding - has since faced calls to resign.

Kate Sang, professor of gender and employment studies at Heriot-Watt University and member of Research England’s EDI group, had shared on X a Guardian article about government plans to clamp down on pro-Palestine marches and called the plans “disturbing”. Ms Donelan had also criticised Kamna Patel, a development studies academic at UCL, who had retweeted a post describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide and apartheid”.

“Officials within my department alerted me to a tweet,” Ms Donelan told the committee.

“At the time, I was very concerned that there was a process failing in the appointment of members to the EDI board,” she continued.

“And I worked with officials in my department, and lawyers across my department, over the course of two days to draft, to clear and to send an official letter to UKRI’s CEO to ask for an investigation.

“This was highlighted using the same medium that was already used – ie, X, or as often known, Twitter.”

Following Ms Donelan’s intervention, UKRI said it was setting up an investigation – which subsequently found no evidence of wrongdoing by members of the EDI group.

“My intentions were, and always are, to do the right thing,” Ms Donelan told the committee. “The individual has subsequently clarified that her tweet was in relation to the entire article, and not just the headline that was quoted within the tweet.”

Ms Donelan said that last week she “publicly withdrew all of my concerns and, without admitting liability, £15,000 was paid to settle the case and save any costs associated with a protracted legal dispute, which would have been significant even if, of course, the department had won that case. The legal expenditure was approved by the department’s accounting officer.”

Ms Donelan added: “While I always err on the side of transparency, I am now clear that in this case, I could have sent the letter in confidence to the UKRI in order for them to undertake the investigations privately. And I do apologise for not having done so, and for any distraction this has caused from this government’s positive agenda.”

The science secretary also told the committee: “My actions were never motivated by any political desire. They were motivated by a concern over whether proper process and due diligence had been followed.”

Lord Drayson, a Labour peer and member of the committee, repeatedly pressed Ms Donelan on whether civil servants in DSIT were made aware Ms Donelan would be sharing her letter on social media when they cleared it. “Yes, the answer is yes,” the minister replied.

Sarah Munby, permanent secretary in DSIT, also appearing before the committee, said: “I think the secretary of state has been very clear that those clearances did indeed take place.”

Ms Donelan said the official who “alerted” her to the tweet “had been alerted themselves”.

The minister also said there would be an “internal review of processes [in DSIT] to ensure we’ve learned the lessons of this and that we don’t ever repeat those”.

She added: “I do apologise for tweeting this letter publicly. And I have formally retracted my concerns as well.”

Lord Drayson also pressed Ms Donelan on her department's response to a "broken" university funding model.

Ms Donelan told him: "I think you said to the permanent secretary, ‘do we think it’s a crisis?’. No, we do not. Are we working closely with the Department for Education to make sure that we are across the financial health of the universities that are leading on research?…Absolutely.”

The committee hearing was held to examine Ms Donelan on a year of work by DSIT, created in February 2023.

The department had been focused on “delivery, delivery and delivery”, she said, highlighting its delivery of a UK-hosted Global Summit on AI, the Online Safety Act and a “bespoke deal for Britain to rejoin Horizon Europe”.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com