Vote Leave boss: 'Moron' ministers talking 'absolute bullsh*t' on EU nuclear body
3 min read
The boss of the Vote Leave campaign has hit out at government “morons” who argue the UK must quit an EU nuclear energy body after Brexit.
In a furious Twitter tirade Dominic Cummings said the claim Britain will have to withdraw from Euratom was “unacceptable bullsh*t”.
Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested in January that if the UK wanted to leave the European Court of Justice it would have no choice but to exit the bodies it oversees, including Euratom.
Campaigners have warned quitting the nuclear body - which controls safety in the sector - could harm investment in the UK’s nuclear technologies, cost jobs and lead to power cuts.
But Mr Cummings - who served as campaign manager in the victorious Vote Leave campaign last year - took to Twitter to argue the ECJ and Euratom were governed by separate treaties.
In January Mr Davis told the House of Commons: "Although Euratom was established in a treaty separate to European Union agreements and treaties, it uses the same institutions as the European Union including the Court of Justice.
“That is why the 2008 EU Amendment Act makes clear that, in UK law, membership of the European Union includes Euratom. And it is why Article 50 applies to both the European Union and Euratom."
Mr Davis' former chief of staff James Chapman has warned that quitting the ECJ and therefore - in his view - Euratom could end the free movement of nuclear scientists.
The Royal College of Radiologists has warned today in the Evening Standard that withdrawing from Euratom would restrict the import of cancer scan treatment, affecting 10,000 UK patients.
And Professor Roger Cashmore, chair of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, told Buzzfeed News quitting the body would create an "alarming mess" for the UK nuclear sector.
Lawyers are divided on whether leaving Euratom is necessitated by Britain's exit from the EU, according to the independent House of Commons Library.
'DITCH CRAP IDEAS'
Elsewhere, Mr Cummings argued the Prime Minister should use the first weeks of August to “ditch truckloads of crap ideas foisted on us by shambolic 1st 9 months of the May govt”.
He also urged her to ignore the “whining” from a number of pro-Brexit Tory MPs and said the formation of a brand new party was “incr[edibly] tempting”.
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