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Theresa May's Brexit vision is what would put your security at risk

May's boast that 'no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain' would, if put into practice (as the OECD thinks it would), lead to an end to security cooperation between Britain and the EU. We would end up asking our brave police officers and security services to fight terrorism with one arm tied behind their backs

Chuka Umunna
Thursday 08 June 2017 14:57 BST
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Conservative's plans to fund social care through the sales of older peoples homes sparked protests and a u-turn earlier this year
Conservative's plans to fund social care through the sales of older peoples homes sparked protests and a u-turn earlier this year

During recent months, our country has suffered three horrific terrorist attacks. It is right that the general election has been unaffected, as we cannot allow acts of evil to destabilise our democracy. But we have all seen how security, rightly, has become a key issue in this election, especially in the aftermath of the London Bridge attacks on Saturday night.

There is a consensus across the political spectrum that we must give our brave police and security services the tools they need to keep the British people safe from acts of terror like the despicable recent attacks.

The Prime Minister chose the day before the election to launch a baffling and cynical attack on human rights legislation – when there is not a shred of evidence that doing so would have prevented any recent attacks. This is a ploy designed to shift the focus away from the 20,000 police officers the Tories have cut since 2010.

The reality is that a key plank of the Prime Minister’s Brexit strategy will put our security at risk. Her boast that “no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain” would, if put into practice (as the OECD thinks it would), lead to an end to security cooperation between Britain and the European Union.

The threats we face are international in nature and the best way of fighting them is to work closely with our partners across the world, including in Europe. The EU’s crime and terror fighting institutions, in which the UK plays a full role, give our security services crucial information about potential threats and suspects.

Europol – whose director, Rob Wainwright, is British – facilitates cooperation by police forces from Britain and the whole of Europe. EuroJust does the same for judicial systems, making it easier to prosecute offenders. The European Arrest Warrant prevents serious criminals and terrorist suspects from hiding from justice in a different European country, as it eases the extradition process.

Even more important are the institutions that let our police and security service access information about suspects the length and breadth of Europe. The Schengen Information System is an EU-wide database on organised criminal and terrorist suspects. It includes alerts on people who have travelled to Syria and elsewhere to fight for Isis. Our police and security services used the database over half a billion times in 2016, equivalent to 16 checks a second. The Prüm Convention allows for fast and efficient data exchange between EU Member States, including on DNA analysis files, fingerprint identification systems and vehicle registration databases. The European Criminal Records Information System supports the exchange of crucial information on criminal convictions between EU law enforcement authorities.

In a speech earlier this week, the Prime Minister admitted that British participation in these institutions will “lapse” when we leave the European Union, unless we negotiate continued involvement. That is why threatening to leave the European Union with no deal is so dangerous. Brexit without a deal would risk our involvement in these programmes ceasing with no new arrangements to replace them.

Prime Minister Theresa May casts her vote

This nightmare scenario is far from impossible. No deal, by definition, means that there will be no continuing agreement between the UK and the EU on security ready to go by the end of the Article 50 process. We would find ourselves in limbo, our ability to fight terrorism diminished while we frantically tried to negotiate a new deal from the outside.

This would be asking our brave police officers and security services to fight terrorism with one arm tied behind their backs. The Prime Minister should end her misleading rhetoric that no deal is better than a bad deal and, as a minimum, make clear that she will not even countenance walking away from the negotiating table without an agreement on security cooperation. In this election, it is crucial she is not given a blank cheque to negotiate a chaotic, extreme Brexit and put our national security at risk.

Chuka Umunna is Labour candidate for Streatham and was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee in the last parliament

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