UK ready to abandon EU’s €95bn science fund in Brexit dispute

UK ready to abandon EU’s €95bn science fund in Brexit dispute

Boris Johnson’s government is this month planning to step over what British scientists have called “a precipice” by walking away from the world’s biggest scientific research programme, the EU’s €95bn Horizon fund.

Brussels has blocked the UK from participating in the programme over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade dispute, which the prime minister refuses to back down on.

Instead, UK ministers are finalising legislation to unilaterally rip up parts of the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, a key element of Johnson’s Brexit deal with the EU, with publication expected this month.

One government official said the Northern Ireland bill could be published as early as this week, a move that is likely to harden hostility in Brussels towards London.

The stand-off over Northern Ireland has dismayed British scientists, who fear being cut off from big collaborative projects with EU counterparts. They have urged both sides to find a compromise.

But allies of Kwasi Kwarteng, UK business secretary, said he was “keen to press ahead with plan B” — an alternative British programme of global research co-operation outside of the Horizon project.

They said Kwarteng was looking to trigger the fallback option this month, which would involve spending £6bn over three years on a new global science fund,