PM facing rebellion over nuclear watchdog
Dissension over May’s plan to pull UK out of Euratom as nine Tory MPS indicate they will oppose the move
THERESA May is facing her first big parliamentary Brexit rebellion over her determination to pull Britain out of an obscure nuclear regulator. Nine Tory MPS have indicated they are opposed to the Government’s plan to pull out of Euratom, the nuclear watchdog, raising the prospect of a showdown in the House of Commons over the issue.
The Government is now drawing up plans for associate membership of the body in an effort to convince Tory MPS to back down.
The organisation regulates the movement of nuclear materials across Europe and there are fears leaving would result in industry experts in the UK moving to the Continent and cause delays in treatment for cancer patients.
Mrs May announced earlier this year that Britain would be leaving the agency after Brexit because it was under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
The Prime Minister has made clear that ending the influence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the UK is a “red line” in Brexit negotiations.
Eight of the pro-european Tory MPS who have suggested they are opposed to leaving Euratom were previously ministers, including Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, and Anna Soubry, the former business minister.
Dominic Cummings, the architect of the Leave campaign and former adviser to Michael Gove, suggested the decision to quit the regulator was “moronic”.
He said that the Conservative Party “keeps making huge misjudgments” about what the EU referendum was about and that Euratom is governed by “different treaties” with the ECJ’S role described as “no significant problem”.
Meanwhile, the Government described as “completely untrue” claims that thousands of cancer patients could face treatment delays as a result of the UK leaving Euratom.
Nicola Strickland, president of the Royal College of Radiologists, told the Evening Standard that she was “seriously concerned” about keeping continued access to radioactive material used in scans and tests if the UK leaves the regulator.
Mrs May told MPS that Britain will seek a close post-brexit relationship with the regulator.
But she insisted that membership of Euratom is “inextricably linked” with membership of the EU as she reiterated that the UK’S current relationship with Euratom will come to an end.
Responding to a question in the Commons yesterday from Hilary Benn MP, chairman of the Brexit Select Committee, she said: “There are countries around the world that have that relationship with Euratom which are not members of the European Union but we need to put that Bill in place and I look forward to your support for that Bill.”
The fuss over Britain’s membership of Euratom, the EU nuclear regulator, seems to typify the rage over many aspects of Brexit. Ideological Remainers, like Anna Soubry and other Tory MPS threatening to rebel on the matter, wail that the country is taking its leave of a service of vital importance. Purist Brexiteers, meanwhile, see Euratom as a outpost of the EU which, because it is ultimately overseen by the European Court of Justice, cannot form part of a post-brexit Britain.
Both are right on the detail, and wrong on the principle. Certainly Euratom is important, notably in the supply of radioactive isotopes used in medical treatments. Equally, the ECJ is involved in a way that grates on British sovereignty. But is either of these things insurmountable? No, far from it. Switzerland, for example, has equal status to Euratom’s members through its own “associate membership”. And there are a host of issues on which ECJ jurisdiction may come to be replaced by a combination of oversight by British and EU courts. As William Hague points out opposite, such a mechanism could eventually settle disagreements on the rights of UK and EU citizens, as well as financial regulation or customs procedures.
The diehards on both sides of the Brexit debate appear to be fixated on the problems, creating some where there are none and blowing others that do exist out of all proportion. What they seem to have failed to realise, while they continue to wrangle with each other, is that the rest of the country has moved on, and is focused on the outcome of Brexit, not on an endless rerunning of pre-referendum debates. If we look for solutions, not problems, it may turn out some are easy to find.