Prof Brian Cox predicted there would be a UK Nobel prize winner following the news of the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN, near Geneva, either for Peter Higgs himself or some of the scientists involved in the discovery.

He was debating political funding for science with Andrew Neil, Michael Portillo and Alastair Campbell,

He said Britain was one of the most successful countries in science, despite relatively low government funding compared to other major nation, although he said there was some evidence to support David Cameron's claim that he was backing science.

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