Nigel Farage fumes at Sunak's creep back to EU - 'We never moved away' from Brussels
Nigel Farage says the UK 'hasn't diverged' from the EU despite its departure from the bloc
GB NEWS
Nigel Farage has claimed the UK’s decision to rejoin the EU’s flagship scientific research scheme comes with a hefty price.
Britain had been excluded from the scheme for the past three years as a result of a disagreement over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
This was despite associate membership being agreed upon as part of the Brexit trade deal when the UK formally left the EU in 2020.
The former Brexit Party leader believes the UK being able to rejoin the scheme has come at the cost of its ties to Northern Ireland.
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“You’ve got to remember why now. When Lord Frost negotiated the Brexit deal, which I wasn’t fully in favour with, but he had a tough job”, he said on GB News.
“He wanted us to stay a part of this programme. Why? Because the scientific community wanted to be a part of it.
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“They love the idea of free money, of course it isn’t free money.
“The EU reneged on this, until we signed up to the Windsor Framework.
“Don’t think we’ve just re-joined Horizon, we’ve done it because we’ve signed up to a deal which has permanently cut off Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.”
GB News host Patrick Christys asked: “So the price that we’ve paid for a bit of space exploration with our European friends is Northern Ireland?”
Rishi Sunak has spoken out about the UK's decision to rejoin the scheme
REUTERS“Absolutely”, Farage said in response.
“I might have been slightly neutral about this, it’s not the biggest deal, but looking at the context in how this has been achieved, I cannot say this is a good day.”
As part of the deal, UK-based scientists and institutions will be able to apply money money from the £81bn fund.
The announcement also states that the UK will associate to Copernicus, the EU’s £8bn Earth observation programme.
Britain will not be rejoining a nuclear research alliance known as Euratom R&D, however an agreement is in place for cooperation on nuclear fusion.
The European Commission said the decision is “beneficial to both”, adding that “overall, it is estimated that the UK will contribute almost €2.6bn (£2.2bn) per year on average for its participation to both Horizon and Copernicus”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "With a wealth of expertise and experience to bring to the global stage, we have delivered a deal that enables UK scientists to confidently take part in the world's largest research collaboration programme.
"We have worked with our EU partners to make sure that this is the right deal for the UK, unlocking unparalleled research opportunities, and also the right deal for British taxpayers."
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