Nicola Blackwood will be among the MPs to quiz the head of the Natural Environment Research Council on the controversial decision of whether to call its £200m state-of-the-art research vessel RRSA Boaty McBoatface.

Profesor Duncan Wingham, the NERC chief executive, will sit before the Commons science and technology committee - headed by the Oxfordshire MP - about their popular Name Our Ship competition.

The name received 124,000 public votes, winning comfortable over second place RRS Poppy-Mai, named after a toddler with incurable cancer.

Speaking ahead of the hearing, Miss Blackwood said: “Hundreds of thousands of people took part in NERC’s competition to name a new polar research vessel.

"And they’ll want to know whether there’s going to be a ‘Boaty McVolte-face’ on the name. 

“My committee wants to explore this as an example of science communication.

"Was it a triumph of public engagement or a PR disaster?

"We’ll also want to know how NERC intends to build on the mass coverage they’ve attracted and engage people with the vital polar science that Boaty will be enabling."

The final decision on the boat's name will be announced by the science minister Jo Johnson.