Scientists at the Sainsbury Lab in Norfolk have developed a variety of Desiree potatoes resistant to late blight, the infamous disease behind the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.

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The scientists are celebrating good performance in recent trials and have hailed their development as a breakthrough, though critics claim the genetically modified potato is "a waste of public money", as blight resistant Sarpo potatoes have already been bred using conventional methods, and are already commercially available.

Scientists from the Sainsbury Lab said they wanted to address the issue of blight in potato varieties with popular consumer and processing characteristics; in addition to the work with Desiree potatoes, they are also looking at more commercial varieties, including Maris Piper.

The research was funded by BBSRC, and results from an early trial were published on Monday. Scientists working on the project said that in 2012, the trial's third year, the GM potatoes experienced the wet and humid conditions ideal for late blight. A control group of Desiree potatoes were 100 percent infected, though GM plants remained resistant to blight.  

The researchers said the GM crops also yielded higher. They claimed their work could go on to reduce dependence on agricultural chemicals.

A gene in the GM potatoes, introduced from a South American 'wild relative', triggers the plant's natural defence mechanisms by enabling it to recognise late blight, which, though they possess around 750 resistance genes, most varieties of cultivated potato cannot combat.

Professor Jonathan Jones from the Sainsbury Laboratory claimed, "Breeding from wild relatives is laborious and slow and by the time a gene is successfully introduced into a cultivated variety, the late blight pathogen may already have evolved the ability to overcome it."

In a bid to allay concerns of GM-sceptics worried about the crops' potential impact on the environment, the developers told the BBC that, as the potatoes are grown from tubers and not seeds, they are sterile, meaning there is no risk of GM pollen escaping into the environment.

The seeds have already been licensed to Simplot, an American company. Researchers said that seeds may be more expensive, but that, once more blight resistance genes have been introduced in new varieties with 'stacked' resistance, farmers stand to save on fungicide applications. Blight is notorious for its ability to adapt and overcome resistance.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Helen Wallace of Gene Watch said, "The GM industry is always promising jam tomorrow, but it's never jam today." Dr Wallace claimed that the research focused on two strains of blight, and crops were not tested for resistance to other strains, such as the aggressive 'blue 13'. In their paper, the researchers conclude that it would be "highly unlikely [that the inserted gene] alone will be sufficient to protect the UK or any other potato crop in perpetuity," but add that their research shows it is possible to make such a modification stably.

Wallace also pointed out that the GM potato strain made little difference to the crop in the first two years when blight was limited or late. In contrast, she said, "conventionally-bred non-GM blight-resistant potatoes are already available and are tested against multiple strains of blight."

Emma Hockridge, head of policy at organic certifiers the Soil Association, was also sceptical. "The fact that this GM potato variety is still at the field trial stage clearly demonstrates what a failing and old technology this is," Hockridge said. "There is no market for GM potatoes in the UK. They were rejected by major food companies in the US in 2002, including by McDonalds, McCain's, Burger King and Pringles."

Critics have been highly critical of the funding allocations for GM crops in the UK; of the UK's agricultural research allocations 15 percent of money goes on GM crops, whilst 1 percent is spent on agroecological methods championed by the expert authors of the IAASTD report  on food security, in which GM is treated as a peripheral issue. The GM potato research has cost £3.2 million so far.