UK bars foreign academics from advising on Brexit

The British Government has barred leading foreign academics acting as expert advisers to the government from contributing to any government analysis and reports on Brexit as they are not British nationals.

"It is utterly baffling that the government is turning down expert, independent advice on Brexit simply because someone is from another country. This is yet more evidence of the Conservatives' alarming embrace of petty chauvinism over rational policymaking," the Guardian reported Liberal Democrats' EU spokesman Nick Clegg as saying.

Sara Hagemann, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), who specialises in European Union policymaking processes, EU treaty matters, the role of national parliaments and the consequences of EU enlargements, said she had been told her services would not be required.

Hagemann tweeted on Thursday, "UK govt previously sought work& advice from best experts. Just told I & many colleagues no longer qualify as not UKcitizens #Brexit @LSEnews".

Hagemann, who is Danish, said she had been informed specifically that she would not be contributing to any further government Brexit work.

A number of LSE academics specialising in EU affairs have been briefing the Foreign Office on Brexit issues, but the school has received an email informing it that submissions from non-UK citizens would no longer be accepted.

The Foreign Office was said to be concerned about the risk of sensitive material being exposed as article 50 negotiations over Britain's exit from the EU, and subsequent talks on its future trade and other relations with the bloc, got under way.