The new Universities Minister Chris Skidmore has a dubious past

British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed a new Universities Minister.

It comes as the old one, Sam Gyimah, stepped down in protest of May’s Brexit plan, which he described as a ‘deal in name only’.

Chris Skidmore will be the minister taking over the responsibility for decision making when it comes to Britain’s universities, science, research and innovation.

He’s arrived to save the day! And it’s a rather mammoth amount of responsibility he’ll have- will he do a good job of it?

Well, he’s only held the post for one day, so we’ve not got much to go on, apart from his voting history as the Conservative MP for Kingswood.

Unfortunately, it’s not looking very good- particularly for those of whom he will be taking responsibility for- namely, the university students.

In the past, Skidmore has voted against a number of rulings in the house of commons.

He voted to scrap the Education maintenance Allowance, which supports students from low income families as they go into secondary education.

He voted against using public money to guarantee jobs for young, unemployed people, and in a harsh blow to students in England and wales, he also voted to raise tuition fees from 3000 to 9000 pounds.

In terms of policies, his voting history shows which side of the train tracks he sits- and it’s not the side of the students that come from less privileged backgrounds.

Skidmore himself was lucky enough to gain a place at Oxford University, where he earned himself quite a reputation.

There he was a member of ‘Bob Nylon and the Elastic Band’- a rather controversial ‘punk-style’ band.

One of their songs was named ‘Oxford Reject’, which include in its lyrics the line ‘Oxford reject, you’re always going to be a reject, you’re still a reject in my eyes’. 

Luckily, for those ministers that preceded Skidmore in the role of Universities ministers don’t need to worry about being a ‘reject’ in Skidmore’s eyes.

Since 2010, four of the 5 ministers that have held the role attended Oxford university. The remaining minister attended Cambridge University.

For those unfamiliar with the Universities, Oxford and Cambridge are typically known to educate the 1% of students- with Labour MP David Lammy saying that having a privileged background is still the key to gaining a place.

Back to Skidmore’s band. If insulting the average student is not tongue in cheek enough, the band also had songs mocking the queen mothers death, joked about the 9/11 terror attacks, and sang a delightful number about sexually transmitted diseases.

But it’s not fair to haul up Chris Skidmore’s past- lets look to his present day policies- and give him the benefit of the doubt.

His new role will take on not just University decisions, but also science, research and innovation. This means he will be instrumental in developing the government’s energy strategy.

Thank goodness he has the best interests of the country at heart. Or wait a second. Does he?

In 2012, Skidmore voted in favour of selling off Englands public forests. Land that is integral to reducing the carbon in the atmosphere.

On top of this, Skidmore has mainly voted against measures to prevent climate change.

So in terms of the future, for both British students and the UK environment, we might be in a little bit of a pickle when it comes to Chris Skidmores lead.