WANTAGE MP Ed Vaizey has launched an outspoken attack on the Government for failing to tell Oxfordshire MPs that Britain will pull out of the European nuclear research agency Euratom.

The news has left hundreds of workers at Oxfordshire establishments like the European Space Agency at Harwell wondering if their jobs are secure.

Tory former minister Mr Vaizey said he was 'so angry' after ministers snuck out the announcement in the notes accompanying the Bill to trigger Article 50 without telling the staff affected.

Mr Vaizey, who was culture minister under David Cameron, said scientists working on the cutting edge of nuclear research have been left fearing for their jobs and homes after the shock announcement.

Speaking in a Commons debate on the Article 50 Bill yesterday, he said: "I am so angry with the Government on its position about Euratom.

"Not a single minister contacted me, the honourable member for Oxford West and Abingdon, and honourable member for Henley, the Culham Research Centre with the Joint European Torus, employing hundreds of people at the heart of nuclear fusion research.

"We have all been inundated with countless emails from people who now literally believe their job is going. I've got the European Space Agency in my constituency.

"If the Government is going to make an announcement like that in the explanatory notes of a Bill at least they could alert relevant MPs beforehand, and at least they could provide my constituents with a definitive statement about what the future of European co-operation on civil nuclear engineering is going to be."

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His comments on Euratom were echoed by Nicola Blackwood, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, who said: "I share the serious concerns of my constituents about withdrawal from Euratom, not only about the implications for the JET site at Culham, which puts us at the forefront of ground-breaking research in this industry, but also for the UK’s nuclear sector as a whole.

"I am challenging the minister to meet with those of my constituents who are affected to discuss how the Government plans to protect this key industry during the complex process of withdrawing from the EU."

The Euratom project regulates and pursues nuclear research in Europe, and Britain's departure from it is expected to have major implications for the domestic nuclear industry.

Broadcaster and physicist Brian Cox has condemned the move as 'parochial idiocy'.

Mr Vaizey also accused ministers of mocking the intelligence of Britons by pretending the UK will sign an array of free trade deal upon leaving the EU.

Instead he warned that angry protests are likely to lie ahead as Britain attempts to draw up a deal with the US, which has different rules on farming and agriculture.

Mr Vaizey said: "Talking about trade deals, one thing that really irritates me about this debate is this fiction that on day one of leaving the European Union we will be handed a suite of lovely trade deals and we will simply sign them.

"We've already heard from members of this House, the campaign and the demos when we try to sign a free trade deal with the United States, particularly on issues like agriculture and manufacturing, are going to be huge.

"It is going to take years to negotiate these deals.

"I accept that, but please don't mock our intelligence by pretending we're going to sign a suite of trade deals on day one of leaving the European Union.

"And also, please don't call us remainers unpatriotic."

Mr Vaizey said there is "no point crying over spilt milk" and he will abide by the referendum vote to trigger Article 50.

However, he stressed that MPs have a duty to hold the Government to account for the Brexit deal it negotiates and he criticised those who brand them "unpatriotic" for asking for regular updates and a plan.

He said: "I am sick and tired, considering that we are now restoring parliamentary sovereignty, to somehow be told as a Remainer that to ask that the Government be held to account, to ask that it reports back every three months on the process and the progress, to ask that it publishes a white paper, is somehow trying to stop Brexit.

"It is not."