The EU referendum campaign has so far been marked by a lot of scare stories and I really want to deal with the facts. Many people have been saying that if Britain votes 'Leave' on 23 June 2016 it could undermine our security. Well from military perspective, the most important alliance we're involved with is of course NATO, which includes a lot of EU countries and a lot countries beyond, such as the United States and Turkey. NATO is the cornerstone of our defence policy, as well as our own defence capability, and the EU does not have a key role in that. So let's have no more nonsense about our defence capability being undermined if we were out of the EU.
Turning to policing and intelligence; in this country we have an excellent police service, probably the best in the world, we also have the best intelligence services in the world, MI5 and MI6. Those forces share intelligence on a routine basis and it is very effective. We would have had far more terrorist attacks if it had not been for the effectiveness and professionalism of our police and intelligence services.
They do not have that sort of relationship on the continent and there have been many criticisms that actually police forces and intelligence services in EU countries do not work nearly as closely together as they do in the UK.
In fact the most important and effective intelligence sharing relationship we are in is what is called the 'Five Eyes' alliance, i.e. UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Our intelligence services work very closely together and clearly there is a shared interest when it comes to combating global terrorism. We need that relationship to continue to work, but apart from us none of the other 'Five Eyes' countries are part of the EU.
Last week I went with the Home Affairs Select Committee to Amsterdam to visit Europol which does some really impressive work on countering global crime, people trafficking, money-laundering and terrorism. We met some very impressive and professional police officers, from around the EU nations, and saw the great job they are doing, which includes swapping data, sharing intelligence and moving operationally to combat criminals and terrorist wherever they are. But we also met a lot of people from other countries outside the EU, including representatives from US Homeland Security, who have offices inside Europol, right next to the British and French police, working shoulder to shoulder with other European police forces. There were also representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, all based physically within Europol sharing intelligence and working together to combat international crime. Incidentally, America does not pay anything for the privilege of being based at Europol other than the cost of people they have seconded to work there.
So that can go on whether we are part of the EU or not. So let's not have any more of this nonsense. Are those people who want to scare us into remaining in the EU actually saying that if our Belgian or French police counterparts got wind of terrorist activity on their side of the continent, or in the Channel, or close by to us, that they would not share that with Scotland Yard, MI5 or MI6, simply because we are not longer members of the EU? Well that is a nonsense.
What we need is much better intelligence sharing and much better joint cooperation between police forces and intelligence services not just within the EU and Europe but globally. We have that at the moment with Europol and it will continue to do a very good job, including us, whether we are part of the EU or not.
So let's have no more of this nonsense. The security and intelligence sharing we enjoy in the UK will not be impacted upon if we vote for our independence on 23 June 2016 and we Vote Leave from EU, as I hope you will.