One of the UK’s most influential former spymasters has warned that withdrawing security and defence co-operation with the EU in retaliation for the failure of Brexit talks would be contrary to Britain’s self interest.
John Sawers, the ex-chief of the UK’s foreign intelligence service, said Britain’s security depended “heavily” on the security of continental Europe and expressed hope that relations between the EU and Britain would not completely collapse after Brexit.
“Things would have got to an extraordinarily damaging state if we ended up withdrawing that security co-operation from our closest allies,” he told journalists at a cyber security conference in London on Wednesday.
Sir John’s comments come after a “contact in Number 10” sent a memo to a journalist at the Spectator magazine on Monday stating that Britain would be a toxic partner if the EU insisted on keeping the UK in the bloc against its will, and that defence and security co-operation would “inevitably be affected”.
British security agencies have said they expect co-operation with their European counterparts on intelligence sharing to be largely unaffected by Brexit.
But the UK’s departure from the EU has led to uncertainty over future access to important crime fighting and security databases such as the Schengen Information System and agencies such as the law enforcement body Europol as well as the European Arrest Warrant.
The memo from the Downing Street aide, widely believed to be prime minister Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser Dominic Cummings, sparked concerns that security and defence ties could be used as leverage in the floundering Brexit talks.
Julian Smith, Northern Ireland secretary, publicly rebuked the Downing Street source, saying on Twitter: “I am clear that any threat on withdrawing security co-operation with Ireland is unacceptable. This is not in the interest of [Northern Ireland] or the Union.”
Responding to the memo Sir John added: “Our security depends heavily on the security of the continent of Europe . . . If we’re talking for example about counter-terrorism, identifying terrorist suspects or terrorist groups that might launch attacks, then the less space terrorist groups have to operate in continental Europe, the safer the United Kingdom is.”
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Sir John, who was head of MI6 from 2009 to 2014, emphasised that national security is a “team game” that rewards collaboration with trusted partners. “It makes natural sense to co-operate on these issues,” he said. “We’re not doing France or Germany or Belgium or Spain a favour by giving them that security against terrorist threats or indeed cyber threats . . . you learn more by pooling that information and by sharing your knowledge and understanding of what’s happening than by acting on your own.”
The former intelligence chief — a Remainer who has previously suggested that the ongoing Brexit impasse is causing a “political nervous breakdown” in the UK — also expressed his concerns about the impact of a no-deal Brexit on UK security, pointing out that the withdrawal agreement negotiated by former prime minister Theresa May had the advantage of preserving the UK and EU within a “a single security space”.
“Obviously in a no-deal Brexit you start with a blank sheet of paper and you start all over again and the UK would not have the automatic right of access to those facilities, that would be a loss in itself,” he said.
