Britain should be taken to court, if necessary, to force it to pay the bill for cleaning up the environmental pollution left on the former baselands by the Americans, said ruling party backbencher Arthur Hodgson yesterday.

And the former Environment Minister said that he would not have accepted the recently concluded deal for the handover of the property leased by the United States.

"Eleven million dollars is hardly compensation for the damage that was done," he said.

"The bridge alone would have cost more than $11 million. It's a relief that I am out of Cabinet where I can say quite categorically that would hardly be an acceptable final payment. There was no way I could have accepted that as final payment."

Mr. Hodgson's views dovetail neatly into the Opposition United Bermuda Party's (UBP) criticism of the deal as a "sell out".

But, while he is urging Government to take Bermuda's case to the British public, he is more angry at what he sees as Britain's intransigence than at any perceived failures of the Government's handling of the negotiations.

"It is a recognised principle of international law that those responsible for environmental damage should clean up the environmental damage," he said.

"And it was Britain who invited the Americans here in pursuit of their foreign policy. Secondly it is Britain who has responsibility for our foreign affairs."

Government should first come out with a definite statement that Bermuda wants the British to clean up the hazardous waste, then begin talks with Whitehall, he said.

"To have Baroness Amos come to Bermuda, to treat her with all these courtesies while she's slapping us in the face is just not my idea of negotiation."

While Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott has indicated that Britain could be asked to pay the bill, Junior Minister for the Overseas Territories, Baroness Amos categorically ruled out that possibility when visiting the Island last week.

"It's the kind of response diplomats and politicians give but I believe and I hope that Britain is on a much higher moral plain than that and I expect her to do her duty," said Mr. Hodgson.

Mr. Scott, who now has responsibility for the former baselands, could not be reached for comment.

As Environment Minister for the first two years of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Government, Mr. Hodgson shared responsibility for the bases with then Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister.

He was fired from the Cabinet by Premier Jennifer Smith in November 2000 after launching a failed bid for party leadership.

Negotiations were concluded between Britain and the United States in a deal this year which ended the 99 year lease some 30 years ahead of schedule and left Bermuda with $11 million for the maintenance of Longbird Bridge, assurances of possible US assistance to the Bermuda Regiment and massive quantities of hazardous materials in the environment.

Left unresolved was the question of cleaning up the pollution, which includes asbestos, heavy metals and 500,000 gallons of jet fuel left in Bassett's Cave.

Baroness Amos acknowledged concern within Government circles about the environmental damage in an interview with this newspaper last week.

But she denied that her Government had in any way led the Bermuda Government to expect that Britain would pay the bill for remediation.

Mr. Hodgson's version of the talks under his watch is entirely different. He said he had made it clear in a letter to then junior Minister Baroness Scotland that Bermuda expected Britain to pay the cleanup tab.

And he had received a verbal assurance from Prime Minister Tony Blair that "he would deal with it".

Britain had felt confident that they could get the money from the Americans, using as leverage the fact that US defence policy depends on British bases around the world, he said.

"I said I didn't care where the money came from."

Asked why he did not take the issue to the international media and lobby groups like Greenpeace, Mr. Hodgson said that that was a fallback position if an impasse was reached.

"I presume that strategy remains in place," he said.

Both the British and American publics should be made aware of the damage caused," he said.

But an awareness raising campaign in the United States posed a "catch 22" situation and could harm the tourism industry, the backbencher acknowledged.

"Britain in any case should be the primary thrust of our endeavours. So we need to tell the British public what is happening. English people are not unsympathetic to the way in which Britain has handled their colonial people over the years. The British public will support Britain paying up."

On Baroness Amos' visit, Mr. Hodgson was unimpressed.

"It's a cheap shot to send a colonial to deny justice to the colonies. When Baroness Amos addressed Parliament I had difficulty restraining myself from standing to ask when she was going to bring the cheque for the bases. But in the end I was restrained by my whip. Not that it required a lot of restraint, I wasn't in a disruptive mode."