Former spy chief says the Prime Minister must keep our troops out of any EU Army
Ex-MI6 boss Sir Richard Dearlove says it's vital that Britain severs all defence ties with Europe following Brexit
AN ex-MI6 chief has warned over a “Hotel California” defence alliance with Brussels that we will “never leave”.
Sir Richard Dearlove is demanding Theresa May rip up plans to keep Britain closely tied to defence projects, including an EU Army.
The former spy chief said: “We must cut free from real and present dangers of continuing entanglement and subordination to the EU after Brexit.”
A new study reveals Whitehall officials are working with EU counterparts to keep us paying billions into defence projects.
The report, by former adviser to the Chief of the Defence Staff Gwythian Prins, says “participation of any kind is structurally prescribed to be integration, not cooperation”.
The London School of Economics professor said Britain is heading for ‘a Hotel California relationship’.”
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The remark is a reference to the 1977 hit by The Eagles inspired by the feeling that they were trapped by fame.
Prof Prins warned that the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation is part of the “entangling structures” that will keep us tied to Brussels for good.
His report is published by Briefings for Brexit — a new group 50 pro-Leave academics.
Yesterday former commander of the UK nuclear deterrent force Rear Admiral Roger Lane-Nott hit out: “We need to be fully aware that the EU is trying to suck the UK into using our independent nuclear deterrent to provide an umbrella for them and for the U.K. to pay for it. This must not be entertained.”
Ex-NATO commander Lt General Jonathon Riley blasted: “If we are leaving the EU we are doing so to recover our sovereignty but if we surrender control over defence to the EU Commission then we may as well stay where we are - and that is NOT what people voted for.”
And Falklands hero former Major General Julian Thompson Royal Marines added: "The country needs to wake up now to the real danger of how some civil servants are plainly trying to subordinate our sovereign defence to the EU in utterly contemptuous defiance of the will of the people which instructed them to leave.
“The EU should put its resources into NATO which has defended them very well up to now despite their very low financial input.”
And former Defence Minister Sir Gerald Howarth added: “Of all the cards in the UK's hand in the Brexit negotiations, defence and security is one of the most powerful, yet we have deliberately chosen not to play it.
“Worse still, our negotiators seem to be intent on overturning previous government policy by now agreeing that we should play a part in this charade."
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