SCIENTISTS in Oxfordshire could lose their jobs if research budgets are not protected, a former MP has warned.

Dr Evan Harris, who was the defeated Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrat candidate in the General Election, said workers at universities and research institutes in the county were at risk of redundancy.

On Saturday, he joined hundreds of scientists outside the Treasury to demand research budgets are protected from Government cuts.

With the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review less than two weeks away, protestors chanted and sang their message asking Chancellor George Osborne to “Save British Science”. Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities both have research departments, and workers at sites such as the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, in Harwell, could also be at risk.

Dr Harris, a qualified doctor, said: “Any cuts in science funding will lead to both job losses in the university and research institutes in Oxfordshire, and a brain drain abroad.

“We are in danger of losing a generation of the brightest and the best and it would be a tragedy if British science did not remain at the forefront.

“Science is a truly global undertaking and its language is English. So the best scientists, if their personal circumstances permit, will go abroad. There is no doubt that the brain drain is real and at risk of getting worse if funding and morale falls in this country.”

The rally was organised by the Science is Vital campaign.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “We cannot speculate on the spending review while the process continues.

“We are strongly committed to making the economic case for science.

“But public spending on science, just like everything else has to stand up to rigorous economic scrutiny. In these austere times, the public should expect nothing less.”