Raid overseas aid to help fund Kew Gardens, says Zac Goldsmith

Challenges: Kew Gardens has laid off about 50 scientists in its ongoing funding crisis
Lucy Ray/Daily Mail

Zac Goldsmith today called on the Government to raid the £11 billion overseas aid budget to support “cutting-edge” science at Kew Gardens.

The Tory MP for Richmond Park said that even a “minuscule” fraction of the funding for the Department for International Development could help save threatened research at the world-famous Unesco World Heritage site.

His appeal came after ministers refused to give any new commitments on long-term funding for Kew Gardens in a response to a Commons report warning that its current financial management is “a recipe for failure”.

But Lord Gardiner, DEFRA’s spokesman in the Lords said in the response to the Science and Technology Select Committee that Kew Gardens had already received “a good settlement” from its main funding department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with day-to-day funding kept at the same level as two years ago.

He said the Government had provided grants of more than £9 million for IT and £10 million for the Temperate House Precinct Project. He said Defra was “reviewing research, monitoring and other evidence activity with Kew, other agencies and non-departmental public bodies... with a view to setting out and communicating our future priorities following the comprehensive spending review” next year.

But Mr Goldsmith, the frontrunner for the Tory mayoral candidacy whose Parliamentary seat includes Kew, said the global significance of its research into areas such as drought-resistant crops meant that an urgent solution is needed. About 50 scientists have already had to be laid off.

He said: “Kew isn’t just a constituency concern. As well as being an extraordinary collection and tourist destination, it is the home of cutting edge science into food security, conservation, disease and climate change.

“For that reason, the obvious solution, and one that I am pressing, is for DfID to allocate a miniscule portion of its very large budget to supporting that work and keeping Kew strong. Without that help the proposed cuts could damage it irreparably.”

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