Brussels ‘blow-hards’ must understand the weight of Britain’s worth
3 min read
Andrew Murrison MP argues that there should be better acknowledgement at home and abroad of the UK's role as Europe's premier defence and security provider.
Security is the top job of any government. It happens that right now the biggest threat to Britain’s security is economic. Traditional aggression, state and non-state, runs a close second.
So, it is hardly surprising that with leading EU politicians sounding off about making life difficult for the UK economically, Theresa May should, in her Article 50 letter, gently point out that the cornucopia that Britain brings to Brussels contains more than hard cash and a trade deficit.
The UK is Europe’s premier defence and security provider. That needs to be better understood both at home and abroad. At the moment my constituents, being good Europeans, pay for and provide cover EU states enjoy without themselves paying anything like the proper premium. And so did their predecessors. Our war memorials bear witness to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our neighbours. But European leaders tempted to punish Britain for Brexit must not take my constituents for granted. A concern that they might is implied in Mrs May’s letter to Mr Tusk
Angela Merkel is fond of saying the UK can’t cherry pick from the EU. If so, it cuts both ways. What the EU can’t expect is unfettered access to Britain’s defence and security arrangements whilst having us wait in line for trade deals to promote the economy that underpins them. That would be perverse.
Many of those I represent are infantrymen – traditional security providers of a cold steel variety. The countermeasures deployed by others are subtler. These are the technocrats that work, quietly, in places like GCHQ.
The instinct of the British people is to help neighbours who find themselves threatened, even if that is in part the result of their own lack of preparedness. All for one and one for all underpins our defence and security philosophy. It benefits us all. However, being a net giver to countries that are administering a punishment beating would be a very big ask. I would go further and say that even a studied indifference on the part of neighbours to the UK’s economic needs would invite a reciprocal attitude to security issues arising from state and non actors active in Europe’s penumbra and further afield.
Ensuring Europe’s security from traditional and novel threats from nation states, organisations and individuals should continue to be common ground in the years ahead. But Britain does much, much more than its share of the heavy lifting. If there was an implied threat in Mrs May’s historic letter, which senior figures are now denying, it was in my view timely and well made.
For all our sakes, the blow-hards of Brussels must understand the weight of Britain’s worth and what’s at stake.
Dr Andrew Murrison MP is a former defence minister and a member of the National Security Strategy Joint Select Committee
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
