Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper will call for the UK to commit to almost doubling its science and R&D spend to 3 per cent of GDP.

On a day when she will visit the University of Manchester¡¯s National Graphene Institute, Ms Cooper was set to call for a long-term framework for science funding as part of a plan to create more high-wage, high-skill jobs.

Ms Cooper will also take part in a Labour leadership hustings in Manchester alongside rivals Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn.

Her was billed as advocating ¡°a revolution in science and research¡± by her campaign, which also said she was calling for ¡°a revolution in vocational skills, including supporting more University Technical Colleges, and continuing to innovate in apprenticeships and higher education¡±.

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The agenda echoes that of Liam Byrne, Labour¡¯s shadow universities science and skills minister, who is among Ms Cooper¡¯s supporters in the leadership race.

Ms Cooper is expected to say: ¡°We should be at the heart of a revolution in research and science investment. That¡¯s why I will set a target of 3 per cent GDP for science and R&D investment. Just imagine what that would mean for our universities, our cities, our companies. That would transform our economy.¡±

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The 3 per cent GDP target would bring the UK into line with Germany, her campaign said.

The UK spent 1.6 per cent of GDP on R&D in 2013, well behind Germany on 2.9 per cent, according to figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Ms Cooper adds: ¡°When Manchester invented the new technologies of the industrial revolution, we turned them into jobs. Now we aren¡¯t. China and the United States have done far more to turn Manchester¡¯s great graphene invention into patents than we have here at home.¡±

And she continues: ¡°If we were investing 3 per cent of our GDP in science that would give us the chance of 2 million more skilled manufacturing jobs for our country.

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¡°Britain can¡¯t compete with Brazil or Indonesia on low-wage, low skill jobs. But with high-skilled jobs in emergent technologies, in the digital revolution, in the shift to a post-carbon economy, in the harnessing of new technologies such as graphene, we can do what we¡¯ve done before: punch well above our weight as a small island off the coast of Europe.¡±

Mr Byrne has previously argued that ¡°universities help us¡­build a different type of economy, where there¡¯s a bigger supply of better paid jobs in high-growth, high value-added sectors¡±.

john.morgan@tesglobal.com