UK ready to snub EU’s £88bn science scheme over Brexit row

Britain ‘ready to go it alone’, claims new science secretary Michelle Donelan

Rishi Sunak’s new science minister has signalled the UK is “ready to go it alone” if the EU does not agree to Britain’s post-Brexit terms of membership.

Michelle Donelan, the new secretary of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said she is prepared to snub the EU’s £88.6bn flagship research scheme and create an alliance with the United States, Japan and Switzerland.

Writing in The Telegraph, Ms Donelan acknowledged that the science sector was eager to know about the UK’s association with the EU programme, Horizon, but if the partnership could not come to fruition, she said “we are more than ready to go it alone”.