Dear @DominicRaab,

You utter plonker.

You've just instructed UK scientists to stop writing Horizon 2020 grant applications.

Part of the Dec 2017 agreement (& bill) was to continue in EU science to 2020. Now it's blown.

100% irresponsible.

[thread]

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/… For a start, there's Vote Leave's pledge during the referendum:

"Ministers campaigning to leave the European Union say that they will “continue to fund EU programmes in the UK until 2020” in the event of a Brexit, including research funding."

See: timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-go…

“Brexit: UK may get poorer access than Israel to EU science scheme”

Well, we did warn of this & explain continuously during the referendum debate. [Thread]
theguardian.com/politics/2018/… It’s simple. The EU27 *do* want to work with UK closely on science.

They also give superb access to non-EU countries like Israel, Tunisia, etc.

But those countries are relatively small, so EU can afford to be generous.

However, at UK’s scale, such a deal may undrrmine EU27.

Frustrating to see BBC journalists, Remainers & others believing/saying this £40bn is some additional bill for leaving.

It’s not. It’s settling costs we would’ve paid in EU anyway. Get it right.

BTW Brexit ‘dividend’ of 0.5% GDP is trivial compared to real Brexit costs [thread]

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Facts matter, people. You can’t just say “we’re paying £40bn for Brexit” as if we would not have paid this money if we voted Remain. It’s commitments we signed up to - and a chunk is for Single Market access, science, etc bringing considerable returns.