Say No to any surrender to the EU in a re set

    By Sir  John Redwood on May 13, 2025                    

We are getting close to May 19, the date of the UK/EU summit. The UK has asked for too little in a re set and is likely to give away too much.

There is talk of a Defence partnership. This would entail sending our forces into EU wars when they asked. So few EU countries have sufficient defence so of course they would like us to help out. We already offer this to NATO members who are under an obligation to spend more and to look after their own defence. Some new EU legal structure to erode our control of our own military is a bad idea. Anything that undercuts or seeks to supplant NATO is also abad idea, as US membership of NATO is crucial to its forces and credibility.

There is talk of the UK government giving money to secure access for UK defence contractors to the planned Euro 150 bn borrowed fund to boost EU country armaments. There is no need for the UK to pay anything. The EU will need our defence contractors where they have the best kit or are part of existing European. consortia. Any extra money we have for defence must be spent on our own forces, where it will generate orders for UK defence companies.

There is also suggestion the government will give away our fish, open our borders to the under 30 s and align us with EU rules. All bad ideas. Such a deal would be a humiliating surrender