Security threatsDon’t believe the hype about post-Brexit security threats – on either side
A no-deal Brexit would leave both the EU and U.K.“at greater risk of terror attacks,” security minister Ben Wallace has warned in a speech in London. He went on to add that threats that “begin in Europe” can “quickly reach the shores of the U.K..” These fears are overblown, as intelligence ties with the U.S. and others are compartmentalized from wider diplomatic and political tensions.
A no-deal Brexit would leave both the EU and U.K.“at greater risk of terror attacks,” security minister Ben Wallace has warned in a speech in London. He went on to add that threats that “begin in Europe” can “quickly reach the shores of the U.K..”
The speech came as part of a series of interviews to gather support for prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal before it goes to the House of Commons for a vote. The concern seems to be that, if MPs reject the deal on the table, the U.K. would be locked out of EU-wide security databases after Brexit.
The U.K. government has been keen to agree a security partnership with the EU. The prime minister told MPs in the House of Commons that her Brexit deal delivers “the broadest security partnership in the EU’s history, including arrangements for effective data exchange on passenger name records, DNA, fingerprints, and vehicle registration data, as well as extradition arrangements like those in the European Arrest Warrant.”
And the political declaration agreed by the EU and U.K. on their future relationship does indeed state that they “should establish a broad, comprehensive and balanced security partnership.”
Opponents argue that the deal with the EU could damage other security partnerships – particularly the Five Eyes Alliance with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. This is because the deal “surrenders British national security by subordinating U.K. defense forces to military EU control and compromising U.K. intelligence capabilities”.
Among them is former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove, a Brexit supporter who has argued that the U.K. must “cut free” from Europe and avoid “continuing entanglement and subordination to the EU after Brexit” on security.
