After exhorting everybody to vote to leave the EU, Julian Sturdy is now making strenuous efforts to get us back into the next EU Framework for Research and Technological Development (RTD). The current one being known, I believe, as Horizon 2020. Last Friday he tabled a question in the House (HERE) to ask what assessments have been made to see if we can get associate membership of the European Research Area after we leave the EU.
He is also asking (HERE) what our status will be when the 9th RTD discussions begin after we have invoked Article 50. The 9th RTD covers the period after 2020. This is precisely the kind of cherry picking the EU have warned us about. It is akin to getting a divorce but still wanting to come and watch TV as if nothing has changed.
What the EU think about all this is anyone's guess. Hard Brexit MPs are saying we won't pay a penny of the divorce bill while others, Mr Sturdy included, are demanding access to more or less everything we had access to before.
It seems he's panicking that we might actually leave the EU!
