Sperm donated in the UK is being exported to other countries and can be used to create large numbers of children across the world, violating a strict 10-family limit that applies in the UK, experts warned. According to The Guardian, while a single donor can be used to create no more than 10 families in UK fertility clinics, there are no restrictions on sperm or eggs from the country being sent abroad. This legal loophole is being exploited in what appears to be an industrial-level practice. It also raises the prospect of some donor-conceived children navigating relationships with dozens of biological half-siblings across Europe and beyond. 

Amidst this, experts are calling on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to tighten restrictions. “If you believe that it’s necessary to enforce the 10-family limit in the modern world then logically that should apply wherever the sperm are from,” said Prof Jackson Kirkman-Brown, chair of the Association for Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS), per The Guardian. “There is data showing that some of the children who find the really big families struggle with that,” he added. 

Separately, speaking to the outlet, Prof Lucy Frith, of the University of Manchester, who is researching donor-conceived experiences, said that making contact with biological half-siblings is often viewed positively. However, she added that “when numbers of siblings began to grow [it] felt unmanageable to have contact and relationships with a growing and indeterminate number of people.” 

“There are no hard and fast figures of when the number becomes ‘too much’ and this depends on individuals, but generally over 10 was felt to be a large group,” she said. 

“Once you’ve frozen sperm it doesn’t get any older,” said Mr Kirkman-Brown. This means that a donor sperm could continue to be used for years or decades. “You can end up with donor siblings older than your parents, which is not somewhere we’ve been yet,” he added.

Donations are “presented to donors as a beautiful gift to help someone create a family, not as, ‘We’re going to maximise the number of births from your gametes and make as much money as we can from that,'” said Prof Nicky Hudson, a medical sociologist at De Montford University. 

The rule for enforcing the 10-family limit across licensed clinics is controlled by HEFA. According to the regulatory body, 10 is the number people feel comfortable with in terms of the number of potential donor-conceived children, half-siblings and families that might be created. 

“As the HFEA has no remit over donation outside of HFEA licensed clinics, there would be no monitoring of how many times a donor is used in these circumstances,” said Rachel Cutting, director of compliance and information at the HFEA.

Also Read | Humans Experience Fastest Aging At These Two Ages, Reveals Study

Experts are now asking HEFA to crack down. “The HFEA is limited by its statutory duties, but it could stipulate that it will only import gametes that meet the UK limit (10 families), outside the UK,” said Lucy Frith. 

“The HFEA’s position that this is outside its remit is not good enough,” said Sarah Norcross, director of the fertility charity Progress Educational Trust. “I’m not against there being more than 10 families if some are outside the UK, but 75, which some of these banks have alighted on, is a heck of a lot of relatives. Even if they say we can’t control the number of families abroad, they could insist that the number is made available to the recipient,” she added. 

Notably, according to The Guardian, the United Kingdom was an importer of sperm till five years ago, mainly from the US and Denmark. But between 2019 and 2021, the UK exported 7,542 straws of sperm. Additionally, the world’s largest sperm and egg bank Cryos opened a unit in Manchester this April.

“The European Sperm Bank, which accounted for 90% of exports, applies a worldwide limit of 75 families a donor and estimates that its donors help on average 25 families,” the report said. 

“The idea of a dad to loads of children already exists in our cultural imagination. We don’t have that for women,” noted Prof Nicky Hudson, adding that it’s not an idea encouraged by women. One of them told her it “felt like human trafficking”. 

London:

The UK government on Wednesday announced plans to axe 92 House of Lords seats retained for hereditary lawmakers, resurrecting reform of the unelected chamber started under Tony Blair’s Labour government in the 1990s.

King Charles III, opening the first parliamentary session after Keir Starmer’s general election win for Labour, said removing the peers’ right to sit and vote in the Lords was part of “measures to modernise” Britain’s uncodified constitution.

Labour won the July 4 election by a landslide, returning it to power for the first time since 2010, allowing it to put its manifesto pledges into law, including the much-touted Lords reforms.

Parliament’s unelected upper chamber has long been subject to demands for reform to make it more representative and less “a chamber festering with grotesques and has-beens”, as one newspaper columnist famously described it in 2022.

But the extent of Labour’s plans remain unclear.

The scrapping of the hereditary peers — the hundreds of members of the aristocracy whose titles are inherited — has been described as a “first step in wider reform”.

“The continued presence of hereditary peers in the House of Lords is outdated and indefensible,” the government said in briefing notes accompanying the King’s Speech.

Removing hereditary seats

Comprising around 800 lawmakers, the House of Lords is comfortably larger than any other equivalent in a democracy.

Its members, whose current average age is 71, are mostly appointed for life.

They include former MPs, typically appointed by departing prime ministers, along with people nominated after serving in prominent public- or private-sector roles, and Church of England clerics.

The primary role of the centuries-old chamber is to scrutinise the government.

It cannot override legislation sent from the popularly elected House of Commons, but it can amend and delay bills and initiate new draft laws.

That job occasionally propels the Lords into the political spotlight, such as during its recent delays to the previous Conservative government’s contentious Rwanda deportation plan — quickly scrapped by the new government.

Like the Commons, the Lords has specialised scrutiny committees.

The new government’s planned legislation revisits the House of Lords reform agenda that Blair’s Labour government initiated in the late 1990s.

His government had intended to abolish all the seats held by hundreds of hereditary members who sat in the chamber at that time.

But it ended up retaining 92 in what was supposed to be a temporary compromise.

“25 years later, they form part of the status quo more by accident than by design,” said the briefing from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.

“No other modern comparable democracies allow individuals to sit and vote in their legislature by right of birth,” it added.

“Holding membership of a seat within a Parliament on a hereditary basis is incredibly rare.”

‘Overdue and essential’

The government said the reforms were in part motivated by the gender imbalance of hereditary peers — currently all male, because most peerages can only be passed down the male line.

The rest of the House of Lords fares better, with 242 of other members — 36 percent — female.

Starmer’s new administration also argues that hereditary peers are too politically “static” for a democracy.

Of the 92 seats allotted for them under the 1999 reforms, 42 are for Conservatives, 28 for so-called crossbenchers, three for the Liberal Democrats and just two for Labour.

Meanwhile 15 are elected by the entire chamber from the hundreds of hereditary peers that exist in the UK.

Reformers also argue that hereditary peers do not face propriety checks, compared to life peers who are subject to a vetting procedure from the House of Lords Appointment Committee.

“In the 21st century, there should not be almost 100 places reserved for individuals who were born into certain families, nor should there be seats effectively reserved only for men,” the government argued

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A woman from the United Kingdom pleaded guilty to murdering her parents and living in their home for several years after, as per a report in the Independent. Virginia McCullough, 36, entered a guilty plea to the murders of Lois McCullough, aged 71, and John McCullough, aged 70, between June 17 and June 20, 2019, during her appearance via prison video call at Chelmsford Crown Court on Thursday. She hid their bodies inside the house and kept residing at that location.

The woman lied to the doctors and relatives that her parents were unwell, on holiday or on vacation to cover her tracks. Her actions came to light on September 15, 2023, when Essex police executed a warrant at the Pump Hill residence after her parents’ doctors expressed concerns about missing visits. At that point, the 36-year-old admitted to stabbing her mother and poisoning her father with prescription drugs, according to the cops.

McCullough confirmed her identity, entered guilty pleas to both counts and stated that she understood the judge’s remarks. She will be sentenced on October 10 and 11.

As per the outlet, Judge Christopher Morgan said, “You will understand that there is a single sentence that can be passed upon you in these circumstances. Consideration however has to be given to the minimum term.”

Meanwhile, people living around the neighbourhood described the woman as “quite chatty” and a “little bit odd”, according to The Guardian. Dave Oldershaw, a neighbour, said McCullough was “carrying on, going up to the Chinese (takeaway) like nothing has happened”. He “thought she lived on her own” at the house and stated that he “only knew her to say hello to – she wasn’t trouble.”

A worker at a nearby shop said the woman had told him her parents had moved to be by the seaside. He said he had not seen them since the Covid-19 pandemic but would previously “see them two or three times per week”.

According to the employee, McCullough appeared “a little bit odd sometimes.” “She would come in and go ‘do you want a coffee’ then five minutes later, there would be a coffee sitting there,” the worker continued.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer take part in the BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, on June 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

In a final and noisy pre-election debate on Wednesday night, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party Leader, Keir Starmer, argued loudly with each other on the cost of living, taxes and welfare, immigration and gender.

The Prime Minister, in danger of losing his Richmond (Yorkshire) seat, repeatedly warned voters over the 75-minute debate not to “surrender” to Labour on various fronts.

Mr. Sunak’s Conservative Party has been in power for 14 years, and has lagged behind Labour in opinion polls by around 20 points. Following the pandemic, Britons have seen four conservative Prime Ministers, crumbling public services (such as the National Health Service) and a cost of living crisis.

ALSO READ | Snap poll: On the surprise election announcement for the U.K.

The U.K.’s tax burden had hit record levels under the Sunak government. The independent Institute of Fiscal Studies warned earlier in the week that neither party was being upfront about the trade-offs that would have to be made between taxes and public services, which are already in disarray.

Mr. Sunak spoke over his opponent at length during the tax segment, accusing Mr. Starmer of planning a tax on pensions. “It is in their DNA. Mark my words. Your pension, your council tax your home, your car, you name it, they will tax it,” Mr. Sunak said.

On immigration, Mr. Starmer attacked the Prime Minister for the impracticality of the government’s plan to deport migrants with failed asylum claims to Rwanda. Mr Sunak argued that opposition leader did not have a plan and that it would be infeasible to return undocumented migrants to countries like Iran and Afghanistan.

The debate also went into some of Britain’s culture wars. The candidates were asked if they would protect women-only spaces. They both agreed on the equivalence of “sex” and “biological sex” but differed on the legal instruments required to achieve women-only spaces. Mr. Starmer accused the Tories of splitting people on a number of issues , as he cautioned people against transphobia.

Both candidates attempted to sidestep questions on mending Britain’s trading relationship with the European Union (EU). Pressed on the issue, Mr. Starmer said he would get a better deal with the EU including in research and development, as he pushed back against Mr. Sunak’s accusation that a better deal came with the free movement of EU citizens across the U.K. border.

Although Mr. Sunak trails Mr. Starmer in polls, Mr. Starmer also has low popularity.

During Wednesday’s debate, both candidates accused the other of making empty promises.

“Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?” a senior citizen in the audience, Robert Blackstock, asked.

“I get the frustrations, but think about the choice, allow me to finish the job I’ve started,” Mr. Sunak said as he suggested he would protect pensions from tax, “secure” borders, and have lower taxes that Labour.

“People feel like hope’s been beaten out of them,” Mr. Starmer said, arguing that Britons felt worse off now than they were 14 years ago when the Conservatives came to power.

He talked about his “working class” background and bringing a sense of service to politics.

Following the debate, Mr. Blackstock said he was disappointed with the answers both candidates had provided.

“From my perspective, we want a personality. We want somebody that we can recognise. We want somebody on the world stage, that is going to project our Great Britain. That’s what we want,” he said.

British opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer looks on as he visits Morrisons supermarket during a Labour general election campaign event in Wiltshire, Britain, June 19, 2024
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Two polls have found the UK’s Labour party was set to win a record-breaking number of seats and the incumbent Conservatives due for a historic drubbing in July’s general election.

With voters heading to the polls in just over two weeks time, the latest pair of nationwide surveys — by YouGov and Savanta/Electoral Calculus — showed Labour set to win either 425 or 516 out of 650 seats.

Either of the results would be the current opposition party’s best-ever return of MPs in a general election.

ALSO READ | Snap poll: On the surprise election announcement for the U.K.

Meanwhile, the twin polls showed support for the Tories — in power since 2010 — plummeting to unprecedented lows, with one estimating they would win just 53 seats.

The Savanta and Electoral Calculus survey for the Daily Telegraph newspaper predicted Rishi Sunak would become the first sitting U.K. prime minister ever to lose their seat at a general election.

The poll, which forecasts three-quarters of Mr. Sunak’s cabinet also losing their seats, would hand Labour a majority of 382 — more than double the advantage enjoyed by ex-prime minister Tony Blair in 1997.

It also showed the centrist Liberal Democrats just three seats behind the Conservatives on 50, and the Scottish National Party losing dozens of seats north of the English border.

Record Tory defeat?

The YouGov survey predicted Mr. Sunak’s party would win in just 108 constituencies.

That was a drop of 32 on its prediction from two weeks ago, reflecting how badly the Conservatives’ election campaign is perceived to have gone.

The 108 seats the Tories are predicted to win in the poll would still be their lowest number in the party’s near 200-year history of contesting U.K. elections.

Mr. Sunak is widely seen as having run a lacklustre and error-strewn campaign, including facing near-universal criticism earlier this month for leaving early from D-Day commemoration events in France.

In contrast, Labour leader Keir Starmer, set to become prime minister if his party prevails on July 4, has sought to play it safe and protect his party’s poll leads.

YouGov also found anti-EU populist Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party on course to win five seats, including in the Clacton constituency in eastern England where the Brexit figurehead is standing.

Mr. Farage has said he will attempt to co-opt what remains of the Conservative party if he is elected and it fares poorly on July 4.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer (centre), accompanied by Deputy Leader Angela Rayner and Naushabah Khan, Labour councillor for Gillingham and Rainham, speaks to the media on the first day of campaigning at Gillingham football club on May 23, 2024 in Gillingham, England.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Rishi Sunak, his Conservative Party colleagues and Opposition Labour Leader Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet hit the campaign trail with gusto on Thursday, a day after the British Prime Minister surprised many within his ranks by calling an election just six weeks away on July 4.

The 44-year-old British Indian leader’s rain-soaked speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street on Wednesday evening sent the political corridors of the country into a flurry of activity, with Mr. Sunak hitting the ground running with a campaign event in east London right after with his three poll pitches of “Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future”.

ALSO READ | U.K. by-election results deliver double blow for PM Rishi Sunak

“Over the next few weeks, I will fight for every vote,” he pledged.

Asked by the BBC why he chose to fire the starting gun for the election race getting drenched in the pouring rain, Mr. Sunak replied that it showed that he is “not a fair-weather politician”.

“I believe very strongly in the traditions of our country. And when prime ministers make important statements like that, they do it on the steps of Downing Street come rain or shine. And I believe in those traditions and that’s why I did what I did,” he explained.

ALSO READ | On course for power, U.K.’s Opposition Labour prepares for a quick change

The Opposition Labour Party Leader, Mr. Starmer, kicked his campaign off with a simpler one-word message – “Change”.

“On July 4 you have the choice. And together, we can stop the chaos. We can turn the page. We can start to rebuild Britain, and change our country,” he declared.

Conservatives trailing

The reaction to a summer general election, which was not expected before October when Mr. Sunak would have completed three years in office as Prime Minister, has been mixed – with many Tory MPs fearful of losing their seats due to the anti-incumbency that has built up after 14 years of the party being in charge.

Almost every pre-election survey shows the governing Conservatives trailing behind Labour, which is holding a firm 20-point lead after securing decisive wins in the local elections held just earlier this month and seen as a sign of things to come.

“I am feeling quite emotional about all this. I was anticipating an autumn departure from Parliament and still had important issues to raise on behalf of my constituents between now and then. I am sad that I won’t now get to do that,” said Tracey Crouch, one of the backbench Tory MPs more vocal about the displeasure over the election timing.

“A great amount has been achieved over those 14 years and during this campaign, I look forward to speaking to voters about my record of delivery both locally and nationally,” said another backbench MP Priti Patel, who chose to be more positive.

Sunak’s gamble

Poll watchers believe that Mr. Sunak decided to take the gamble of an earlier election as he was convinced that nothing much would improve by the October-November timeline being pitched earlier. With inflation hitting a 2.3% mark this week, indicating an improvement in the cost-of-living crisis that has crippled the U.K. economy since the COVID pandemic, he decided to take the plunge into a trim six-week election campaign.

The economy will be the central plank of Sunak’s pitch to the nation, saying the inflation figures are “proof that the plan and priorities I set out are working”.

Immigration and investment in the defence sector will be some of his other key focus areas, claiming that the Opposition by contrast has no clear plan on these crucial issues.

The Labour Party, on the other hand, is on a slightly easier wicket with its focus being on how they plan to turn things around after the “chaos” of a Conservative Party-led government.

The British Parliament is now into just days of so-called “wash-up” when the government finalises and concludes non-contentious pieces of legislation before its dissolution next week. Under the timeline now set, a new Parliament is likely to be in place in the week following the election results on July 5.

Police in London are seeking help from the public to identify the person responsible for a man’s death whose body was found inside a freezer in an empty pub after he had been missing for nearly a decade. In a statement published on Friday, the Metropolitan Police Service said that Roy Bigg’s body was discovered in October 2021 in the basement of a building that was once a wine bar. He was believed to be in the freezer for several years before he was found by builders working on the premises. He was identified through his dental records. 

The Metropolitan Police believe that Mr Bigg was 70 years old when he died. A post-mortem examination found the cause of his death to be inconclusive. Now, despite previous efforts, cops are still looking for the person responsible for the murder of Roy Bigg. 

“It’s now been more than two years since Roy was found. Although our investigation and previous media appeals have provided us with information about Roy’s life, we still need your help to identify who is responsible,” Detective Chief Inspector Kelly Allen said in a statement. 

Also Read | UK Woman Wrongly Diagnosed With Cancer For Two Years, Wins Compensation

Authorities said that Mr Bigg went missing in February 2012. They want to know where Mr Bigg was between 2012 and 2021, when there were no confirmed sightings of the man they believe was murdered. Officials are offering up to 20,000 pounds, or more than $24,000, for information leading to the arrest, and prosecution of anyone responsible for Mr Bigg’s slaying. 

“Anything you can tell us may prove invaluable in helping us discover what happened,” the Metropolitan Police said. “A post-mortem examination found cause of death to be inconclusive and Roy’s remains were identified through his dental records,” the statement added. 

Ballot papers are verified at Priory House in Chicksands, Bedfordshire, England, during the count for the Mid Bedfordshire by-election, on October 19, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing Conservatives suffered two crushing defeats in previously safe parliamentary seats on Friday, raising doubts about his party’s ability to win the general election expected next year.

The double defeat showed a dramatic slump in support for the Conservatives, who have won the last four national elections, and is only the third time that a British Prime Minister has lost two by-elections on the same day since 1991.

The main opposition Labour Party won the seat of Mid-Bedfordshire, an area about 80 km north of London, overturning a majority of almost 25,000, making it the biggest deficit the party has overcome in a by-election since 1945.

Labour also overturned a huge majority in another former Conservative stronghold, Tamworth, a largely rural constituency in central England, with the second largest swing between the two parties since World War Two.

“These are phenomenal results,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said in a statement. “Winning in these Tory strongholds shows that people overwhelmingly want change and they’re ready to put their faith in our changed Labour Party to deliver it.”

Mr. Sunak, a 43-year-old former investment banker, has recently tried to cast himself as a bold reformer and no longer the cautious technocrat who restored some of Britain’s credibility after scandals and economic turmoil forced his two predecessors from office.

With voters angry over high inflation, economic stagnation, and long waiting times to use the state-run health service, Sunak is running out of time and opportunities to close the gap on Labour, who have enjoyed a double-digit polling lead over the Conservative for over a year.

A spokesman the Conservatives said the results had been difficult but governments usually struggle to win elections mid-term.

In a speech at his party’s conference this month, Mr. Sunak sought to cast himself as a bold reformer who was willing to take tough decisions to revive the economy.

Mr. Sunak announced plans to scrap a high-speed railway line that his predecessors had championed and had previously announced plans to water down the country’s net-zero commitments.

After the conference, polls showed Mr. Sunak had failed to significantly narrow the deficit with Labour, although his personal ratings improved marginally.

Overturning large majorities

Labour had played down its chances of winning either seat with Starmer’s spokesman saying this week his party had the same likelihood of a “moonshot”.

The contests in Mid-Bedfordshire and Tamworth were caused by the high-profile resignations of politicians close to former prime minister Boris Johnson.

The former minister Nadine Dorries quit her Mid-Bedfordshire seat after she failed to secure support for being appointed to the upper chamber of parliament.

The contest in Tamworth was triggered when another politician, Chris Pincher, resigned after he was suspended from parliament for groping men at a London club. The accusations against him contributed to the collapse of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government.

Labour won the Mid-Bedfordshire seat with a majority of over 1,100 overturning a Conservative majority of 24,664 at the last general election in 2019.

The area had previously elected a Conservative member of parliament in every election since 1931.

In Tamworth, the Labour candidate Sarah Edwards won the seat with a majority of over 1,300, overturning the Conservative majority of 19,634 at the 2019 general election.=

A popular radio DJ in London was allegedly tortured to death by “sadistic thugs” who inflicted around 94 injuries on him and locked his girlfriend in a bathroom for two days, a court has heard. According to The Independent, 43-year-old Mehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend, Gozde Dalbudak, were kidnapped by six men near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, last year in October. They were taken to an empty wine bar where Mr Alpergin was allegedly beaten, throttled, scalded with boiling water, stabbed, maimed and violated. 

On Wednesday, the jurors were told that the couple was abducted when they were returning home from an Italian restaurant in Mayfair. The assailants had allegedly installed a tracking device on Mr Alpergin’s car, the outlet reported. They were put in separate vehicles and taken to a bar on White Hart Lane. Mr Alpergin’s naked body was later dumped in Essex woodland and his 34-year-old girlfriend spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed. 

Six men are now on trial at the Central Criminal Court in London. They are accused of murder, kidnap, false imprisonment and preventing the course of justice. 

“It is obvious that before his death Koray Alpergin had been stripped naked and horrifically tortured. From the number and nature of the injuries sustained, the prosecution suggest that it is not hard to envisage a group of sadistic thugs taking it in turns to inflict injury, whether with punches and kicks, hitting him with a bat, scalding him with boiling water, stabbing his feet…” lawyer Crispin Aylett said, according The Telegraph. Mr Aylett also alleged that the attack was connected to “organised crime” and “almost certainly drugs”. 

The jurors were told that the 43-year-old was originally from northern Cyprus. He was a well-known figure in the British Turkish community and owner of a Turkish language radio station in London called Bizim FM. 

On Wednesday the jurors heard that before his death, Mr Alpergin was not his usual “happy-go-lucky” and that he seemed anxious. He was allegedly in debt, including around $40,000 for his car. 

Mr Alpergin’s body was found by a dog walker a few hours after it was dumped in woods on October 15 last year. Mr Aylett said that a post-mortem report identified 94 separate injuries to his body. There were also wounds to the victim’s genitals and an internal injury, the lawyer said. 

Steffan Gordon, 34, Tejean Kennedy, 33, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, Junior Kettle, 32, Ali Kavak, 26, and Erdogan Ulcay, 56, have been accused of murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and perverting justice. 
 

Britain is to rejoin the Horizon Europe science research programme under a new bespoke deal, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office and the EU said on September 7.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Britain is rejoining the European Union’s $100 billion science-sharing program Horizon Europe, the two sides announced on September 7, more than two years after the country’s membership became a casualty of Brexit.

British scientists expressed relief at the decision, the latest sign of thawing relations between the EU and its former member nation.

After months of negotiations, the British government said the country was becoming a “fully associated member” of the research collaboration body U.K.-based scientists can bid for Horizon funding starting Thursday and will be able to lead Horizon-backed science projects starting in 2024. Britain is also rejoining Copernicus, the EU space program’s Earth observation component.

“The EU and U.K. are key strategic partners and allies, and today’s agreement proves that point,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who signed off on the deal during a call with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday. “We will continue to be at the forefront of global science and research.”

The EU blocked Britain from Horizon during a feud over trade rules for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU member, the Republic of Ireland.

The two sides struck a deal to ease those tensions in February, but Horizon negotiations have dragged on over details of how much the U.K. will pay for its membership.

Mr. Sunak said he had struck the “right deal for British taxpayers.” The EU said Britain would pay almost 2.6 billion euros ($2.8 billion) a year on average for Copernicus and Horizon. The U.K. will not have to pay for the period it was frozen out of the science-sharing program, which has a 95.5 billion-euro budget ($102 billion) for the 2021-27 period.

Relations between Britain and the bloc were severely tested during the long divorce negotiations that followed Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the EU. The divorce became final in 2020 with the agreement of a bare-bones trade and cooperation deal, but relations chilled still further under strongly pro-Brexit U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr. Johnson’s government introduced a bill that would let it unilaterally rip up parts of the Brexit agreement, a move the EU called illegal.

Mr. Johnson left office amid scandal in mid-2022, and Mr. Sunak’s government has quietly worked to improve Britain’s relationship with its European neighbors, though trade friction and deep-rooted mistrust still linger.

British scientists, who feared Brexit would hurt international research collaboration, breathed sighs of relief at the Horizon deal.

“This is an essential step in rebuilding and strengthening our global scientific standing,” said Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute for biomedical research. “Thank you to the huge number of researchers in the U.K. and across Europe who, over many years, didn’t give up on stressing the importance of international collaboration for science.”

The U.K.’s opposition Labour Party welcomed the deal but said Britain had already missed out on “two years’ worth of innovation.”

“Two years of global companies looking around the world for where to base their research centers and choosing other countries than Britain, because we are not part of Horizon,” said Labour science spokesman Peter Kyle. “This is two years of wasted opportunity for us as a country.”