Who is Michelle Donelan? Taxpayers cover £15k damages for gaffe-prone Tory MP

Taxpayers were billed £15,000 to cover damages paid to an academic whom science secretary Michelle Donelan falsely accused of supporting Hamas.

A libel claim was brought against Donelan by professor Kate Sang after she tweeted a letter she had written to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in October. In it, Donelan expressed “disgust and outrage”, claiming that Sang and another academic, Dr Kamna Patel, had “shared extremist views” and, in Sang’s case, also claimed she had expressed sympathy for Hamas after the 7 October attacks in Israel.

Donelan posted the letter after Sang tweeted “This is disturbing”, alongside a link to a Guardian article that described the response to the Hamas attacks in the UK. Patel had retweeted a post describing Israeli actions as “genocide and apartheid”.

On Tuesday, Donelan said she accepted that Sang’s comments referred to the Guardian story as a whole, and not just the headline, which focused on the government’s crackdown on support for Hamas. In a statement, she said there was “no evidence” the academic was a supporter of the militant group.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) revealed it had covered the £15,000 sum to settle the libel case – which was paid for by the taxpayer. Donelan is now facing calls to resign and to pay the cost herself after she was forced to retract the comments.

Who is Michelle Donelan?

Born in Cheshire in 1984, Donelan has been something of a lifelong Tory, having decided to become a politician aged six, and speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool when she was just 15. Before becoming an MP she worked in marketing.

Donelan was elected MP for Chippenham in 2015 and quickly rose through the ranks in government. She has previously been an assistant whip, a government whip and higher and further education minister.

Following a raft of resignations at the end of Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister, Donelan was appointed education secretary – before she resigned herself less than 36 hours later. Liz Truss made Donelan culture secretary during her short stint as prime minister, before Rishi Sunak appointed her science secretary in his cabinet reshuffle last year.

Gaffes and controversies

Donelan settling a libel claim using taxpayer money is not the first time the politician has been the centre of a gaffe or controversy. Here are some of the other times she has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons:

Free speech for Holocaust deniers

In May 2021, when Donelan was a minister for universities, she sparked fury by suggesting that a new ‘Free Speech Bill’ would permit Holocaust deniers to speak on campuses. She suggested universities could be fined if they did not allow them to speak. Then-prime minister Boris Johnson was not happy and his spokesman contradicted Donelan, saying that he did not agree with her and that Holocaust denial “is not something that the government would ever accept”.

The severance payment

In July 2022, following her brief appointment as education secretary before resigning less than 36 hours into the job, it emerged that Donelan was entitled to a £17,000 payoff. However, her time in the role made her the shortest-serving cabinet member in British history and there was uproar that she would receive severance pay worth thousands. Donelan ultimately refused the payment.

Not knowing her opposite number

In December 2022, when she was culture secretary, Donelan was asked by SNP MP John Nicolson who Scotland’s culture secretary was. Donelan said she couldn’t name him “off the top of my head”. Donelan quickly discovered it was Angus Robertson – someone she would have seen in the Commons regularly in previous years.

The Victoria Derbyshire grilling

In October 2023, Donelan was accused of “making up lies” by BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire, after the Tories claimed to be a “party of facts”. Derbyshire ran several clips that she described as “untruths”. Derbyshire stopped Donelan after she tried to repeat the slogan back to her and told her that it was “really disrespectful to voters”.

The Victoria Derbyshire grilling (part 2)

During the same interview, Donelan was questioned on political rhetoric within her own party. Donelan would not take a side but tripped over her words, telling Derbyshire that we should “live in a tolerant and respectful country” – before stating: “I believe that we should stand up for things that are divisive, and promote hatred”.