19 Facts About David Willetts

David Willetts 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.

David Willetts was appointed chair of the UK Space Agency's board in April 2022.

Paul Foot wrote in Private Eye that in a 1993 document called The Opportunities for Private Funding in the NHS, published by the Social Market Foundation and financed by private healthcare company BUPA, David Willetts provided the "intellectual thrust" for private finance initiatives in the National Health Service.

Aged 36, David Willetts entered Parliament in 1992 as the MP for Havant.

David Willetts quickly established himself in Parliament, becoming a Whip, a Cabinet Office Minister, and then Paymaster General in his first term.

However, David 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.

David Willetts carved out a reputation as an expert on pensions and benefits.

David Willetts's 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, David Willetts made a controversial speech on grammar schools in which he defended the existing Conservative Party policy of not reintroducing grammar schools.

In June 2011, David Willetts said during the launch of the Government's social mobility strategy that movement between the classes had "stagnated" over the past 40 years, and David Willetts attributed this partly to the entry of women into the workplace and universities for the lack of progress for men.

In June 2015, David Willetts was appointed executive chair of the think tank the Resolution Foundation.

David Willetts is one of the signatories of a statement by senior Conservatives calling for a second referendum over Brexit.

TheyWorkForYou additionally records that, amongst other things, David 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.

David Willetts Chaired the Foundation's Intergenerational Commission between 2016 and 2018, and is President of the Resolution Foundation, along with its Intergenerational Centre.

David Willetts is currently a visiting professor at King's College London where he works with the Policy Institute at King's, 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.

David Willetts is the author of several books on conservatism, including "Why Vote Conservative" and "Modern Conservatism", as well as numerous articles.

David Willetts 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.

David Willetts is an honorary member of Conservative Friends of Poland.

Fourteen years after the publication of "Civic Conservatism" David 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.