The scientist in charge of a taxpayer-funded trial that may determine whether genetically modified crops will be grown in the UK has been attacked for his close links to the US biotech giant Monsanto.

Professor Jonathan Jones, head of the Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre, the UK’s leading plant research centre, has shrugged off the controversy, insisting he has never tried to hide his business relationship with Monsanto or the GM industry.

But as the scientist overseeing the first UK trials of a GM potato, Jones has found himself at the centre of a storm after anti-GM campaigners used social networking sites such as Twitter to highlight the close links between a company he founded, Mendel Biotechnology, and Monsanto.

Mendel’s website states: “Mendel’s most important customer and collaborator for our technology business is Monsanto, the leading agricultural biotechnology company in the world.”

Jonathan Matthews, spokesman for GM Watch, which campaigns against the technology, said: “The frontman for the latest GM push in the UK is being portrayed as a dedicated public servant doing science in the public interest, but it now appears he not only has vested interests in the success of GM but even commercial connections to Monsanto.”

Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch UK, a scientific campaign group critical of Monsanto, said the US company’s “PR strategy relies on seemingly independent scientists making empty promises about the future benefits of GM crops”.