Britain was yesterday to propose signing a new security treaty with the EU after Brexit to maintain and intensify cooperation to thwart “ever-growing and increasingly cross-border threats.”
In its sixth policy paper setting out its vision for ties with the EU after it quits the bloc in March 2019, the government is to say the new treaty “would be underpinned by our shared principles and should make sure our partnership has the agility to respond to the ever-changing threats we face.”
The proposal comes just days after a blast on a packed commuter underground train injured 30 people in west London, the fifth major attack this year.
“We already have a deep level of collaboration with the EU on security matters and it is in both our interests to find ways to maintain it,” British Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis said in a statement.
“A new security treaty with the EU would be underpinned by our shared principles, and should make sure our partnership has the agility to respond to the ever-changing threats we face,” he said.
Britain has published a series of “future partnership” policy papers to try to nudge talks with the EU forward, after they have stalled over the divorce settlement, especially over the so-called Brexit bill.
Security cooperation is seen by government officials as one of their strongest arguments to gain leverage in the complicated talks to unravel more than 40 years of union.
British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that Britain was one of the leading EU contributors to a range of measures, such as data and evidence sharing, extradition measures and to the union’s police agency, Europol.
“Recent events in the UK and across Europe have shown the criminal and terrorist threats we face are varied and increasingly international. The long-standing collaboration we have with our European partners allows us to jointly address these threats and keep our citizens safe,” she said.
“As we prepare to leave the EU it is therefore vital that we agree a new way to ensure continued security, law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation,” Rudd said.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was on Sunday accused by Cabinet colleagues of “backseat driving” on Brexit after setting out his own vision of the country’s future outside the EU.
Only days before British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to speak in Italy about Britain’s planned EU departure, Johnson on Saturday published a 4,300-word newspaper article that roamed well beyond his ministerial brief and, in some cases, the approach set out by the government.
Rudd said it was “absolutely fine” for the foreign secretary to intervene publicly, but that she did not want him managing the Brexit process.
“What we’ve got is Theresa May managing that process, she’s driving the car,” Rudd told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
Asked if Johnson was backseat driving, she replied: “Yes, you could call it backseat driving, absolutely.”
Johnson’s article reignited speculation that he would challenge May for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
However, Rudd said she did not think Johnson was laying the groundwork to challenge May.
“I think that he, like I, supports the prime minister at this difficult time as we try to conclude the negotiations with the EU,” she said.
May’s deputy, Damian Green, also weighed in, saying that Johnson had written a “very exuberant” article, but it was “absolutely clear to everyone that the driver of the car in this instance is the prime minister.”
“It is the job of the rest of us in the Cabinet to agree on a set of proposals and get behind those proposals and get behind the prime minister,” Green told BBC TV.
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