He said: "This increase is nowhere near as good as it sounds, as science costs rise faster than inflation and it is unclear how much of this money will actually be spent on science. The Chancellor’s tight grip on public spending means the increase will almost certainly be more than offset by cuts in departmental science budgets later this year.

"Gordon Brown claims that science spending will be ‘ring-fenced’. The truth, as we know from recent experience with DTI, is that it is open to plunder for any government cause.

"The Chancellor has done nothing to reinstate the £68m that DTI took out of the current science budget a few weeks ago – which makes a mockery of his promises of ring-fencing today."