Another day, another government figure in a spot of bother. Michelle Donelan, Science and Technology Secretary, has today had to retract false accusations she made about an academic and agreed to pay the damages and costs. It’s a rather embarrassing case of the science minister unable to get her facts right: sub-optimal to say the least.
Last October, Donelan accused Professor Kate Sang, an academic working at Heriot Watt University, of expressing sympathy for Hamas in the aftermath of the 7 October attack. She also accused another academic, Dr Kamna Patel, of sharing extremist material. Both woman, Donelan claimed, had breached the Seven Principles of Public Life and should be removed from their positions.
In fact, Dr Patel had shared no such material, while Professor Sang’s only crime was to tweet a link to a Guardian article that described the fallout from the Hamas attack, labelling it ‘disturbing’. Donelan’s mistake seems to be based on a press release from the Policy Exchange which has now left the unfortunate minister rather humiliated by the whole thing.
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