Kemi Badenoch raises concerns over faltering investment during visit

In a recent visit to Cambridge University Hospitals, Badenoch stated she was concerned with ‘making sure that they don’t drive investment away’

The visit occurred on the same day that AstraZeneca announced it was pausing its £200 million investment plans for Cambridge Biomedical CampusRuying Yang for Varsity

by Jan Maciejewski

Monday September 22 2025, 10:32pm

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has raised concerns about investment in Cambridge following a visit to Cambridge University Hospitals earlier this month.

Badenoch told the Cambridge Independent that Cambridge had a “key role” in ensuring that the UK is a “top-tier country,” calling on the government to invest in infrastructure which can accompany growth.

On the 12th September, the leader of the opposition visited the city alongside shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, and Conservative mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Paul Bristow.

The visit occurred on the same day that AstraZeneca announced it was pausing its £200 million investment plans for Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is affiliated with the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This occurred just months after Cambridge University celebrated their partnership with the pharmaceutical company in June, and is set to put over 1,000 jobs in jeopardy if alternative funding cannot be sourced.

Badenoch said that “making sure that they don’t drive investment away is something that I’m particularly worried about”.

The campus is currently the largest research facility in the UK by number of scientists.

The leader of the opposition further stated she was “worried” about other scrapped expansion projects, stating “we need to try and make sure we bring that sort of investment in”.

AstraZeneca pulls £200 million in funding for Cambridge research site

She cited the US pharmaceutical company Merck’s recent decision to pull out of a £1bn expansion in the UK.

Although AstraZeneca have not publicly detailed the reasons behind pulling their investment, their UK president, Tom Keith-Roach, gave evidence to MPs days after the announcement in which he noted that the UK was an “increasingly challenging” country in which to develop drugs and get them to patients.

Badenoch’s visit is not the first time this month that concerns have been raised about Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The group Students Against Pseudoscience recently criticised the site for hosting the Cambridge Wellness Festival.

The festival included sessions on the practices of reiki and reflexology, which students described as “pseudoscientific practice with no evidence base”.

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