"The Welsh and the Scots have the power to veto any additions to the national seed list," said Friends of the Earth GM campaigner Pete Riley. The seed list is a directory of crops that have been approved for planting in the UK.
Scottish opposition to Chardon LL has been less vocal because maize is a warm weather crop, and would therefore not be grown north of the border. Nonetheless, the Scottish Executive still followed Wales in refusing permission.
There are concerns that tests on the crop have been inconclusive. Riley told FoodProductionDaily.com that he believed two studies of the T25 protein, carried out by Bayer, provided no reliable data concerning the safety of the crop. "One of the studies fed T25 protein to mice, but the protein didn't actually come from the maize crop," he said.
And it is not only environmental pressure groups in the UK that have expressed fears over the perceived lack of GM testing. Writing in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Conservative MP Gregory Barker said that he found it "incredible that the government is prepared to give the go-ahead for GM maize to be planted before it has brought forward any legal framework. I cannot understand how even the most pro-GM minister could permit these new crops without laws to prevent contamination."
In any case, the veto represents a major blow to the British government, which is desperate to put a GM variety onto the national seed list. The proposed strain of GM maize, called Chardon LL or T25, is patented by Bayer and is engineered to be resistant to the company's weedkiller.
The government has even considered giving the green light for maize to be grown in England alone. But the Welsh Executive has pointed out that UK regulations stipulate that a particular crop can be grown in one country only if the other two agree.
"I think that the UK government will now exert pressure on the Welsh and the Scots," said Riley. "They are desperate to get the crop approved. However, we think that the Welsh position is a strong one - they are legally allowed to say no."The veto comes at a bad time for the government. There is a vitally important vote in Brussels next week on whether to end the EU moratorium on GM crops, and the UK government is a key supporter of allowing in GM imports. There were hopes that a green light for Chardon LL might come before the vote.
But it would appear that opposition to and fear over GM crop cultivation in the UK is still entrenched. "We need a legal framework to protect farmers who find GM traits have contaminated their crop," wrote Barker. "They would certainly find their produce rejected by the major UK retailers, which know their customers will not buy GM."