Sir Richard Dearlove's speech on security: 'the EU will find itself at the mercy of it populist uprising'

Michael Gove's essay on security: 'We are powerless to stop terror suspects coming to the UK because of EU rules'

WE HAVE LOST CONTROL OF OUR BORDERS

Being a member of the EU means that we must accept the ‘free movement of people’ provisions in the EU treaties which are ultimately controlled by the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). We therefore 1) have almost no control over who enters Britain from Europe and 2) do not control the laws on how to remove EU passport holders from Britain. This makes it impossible to have a sensible immigration policy and it makes it much harder to fight terrorism and deal with criminals.

The UK has lost control of many aspects of border controls and migration. EU law forbids us from automatically denying EU citizens who lack travel documents entry into the UK, and forbids us from checking on a systematic basis whether EU citizens are lawfully resident in the UK.

Our border controls are also under constant attack from the ECJ. Last year the ECJ said that our Government cannot require migrants from other EU states to have a permit issued by UK authorities, even though permits from other EU countries are systematically forged. This will make it easier for terrorists to enter the UK using forged documents.

EU law requires us to admit EU citizens who can produce an EU passport. Yet we have no control over the way other EU countries issue their passports. Some EU member states even sell passports to the highest bidder. The EU also prevents us from removing criminals, such as in the Rafacz case where we could not remove a violent killer. The former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, has said that taking back control of immigration could be an 'important security gain'.

BEING IN THE EU MAKES IT EASIER FOR TERRORISTS TO COME TO BRITAIN

EU law forbids countries in the Schengen area from carrying out systematic checks on anyone with an EU passport from entering. This makes it much easier for terrorists fighting abroad to return to Britain, who need not pass through a single border control between arriving on the shores of Greece and reaching the English Channel. With terrorist groups launching attacks on Europe, more and more EU states are finding that they have to defy the EU and reintroduce border controls to keep people safe.

The ECJ also makes it harder for our Government to strip citizenship from British nationals who have gone abroad to engage in terrorism when it ruled that it, not the British Parliament and courts, would decide who possessed British citizenship. We can no longer automatically strip British citizenship from criminals who acquire it fraudulently. The ECJ insists that it, not member states, is now in ultimate control of citizenship.

It’s not surprising that the former Head of Interpol, Ronald K Noble, has warned that the lack of control over borders ‘is like hanging a sign welcoming terrorists to Europe’.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights adds more dangers. The Charter stops us removing foreign criminals and terrorist suspects from the UK if it would violate their ‘private or family life’. The European Court is likely to accept a huge amount of case law from the European Court of Human Rights on this subject, such as the recent case that ruled that an alcoholic could not be sent back to a Muslim country. It also prevents European nations halting the flow of boats across the Mediterranean which have cost so many lives. Crucially, the Charter also removes from the UK the power to interpret the vital 1951 UN Convention ourselves.

THE CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS WILL MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE

Using the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, EU judges now decide what powers our intelligence agencies and police are allowed to have. The Commission and European Parliament have repeatedly attacked our vital intelligence sharing agreements (stretching back to 1945) with Canada, Australia, and other countries, with the European Commission recently announcing plans for ‘the creation of a European Ιntelligence Agency.’ The US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, has warned that it is 'highly concerning' that the EU is undermining the sharing of information vital in the fight against serious crime and terrorism.

David Cameron once promised ‘a complete opt out’ from the Charter. Now he has abandoned this promise. If we vote ‘remain’, the ECJ will continue to impose rules on how our police and intelligence services fight terrorism. The Charter of Fundamental Rights gives the ECJ more power over EU members than the Supreme Court has over US states. Police and intelligence services are increasingly having to second-guess operations because of Whitehall legal advice on what the ECJ might say in the future. This will get worse.

FOREIGN AND DEFENCE POLICY WILL ALSO GAIN IF WE VOTE LEAVE

Tony Blair said that the EU would never have control of defence policy. As usual, such promises were proved wrong. EU rules have caused problems for defence procurement which has been in a disastrous state for years (not all of it caused by the EU).

The former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove has said that a vote to leave the EU would not 'damage our defence and intelligence relationship with the United States, which outweighs anything European by many factors of 10... The replacement of Trident, the access to overhead satellite monitoring capabilities, the defence exchanges that are hidden from public view, the UK-US co-operation over signals intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency/Secret Intelligence Service/Federal Bureau of Investigation/MI5 liaison and much more would continue as before.'

If we Vote Leave, we will continue to co-operate with our European partners to fight terrorism and organised crime – just as we currently do with important allies like the USA – but we will end the supremacy of EU law and stop EU judges from undermining our security. We will organise defence spending on equipment without interference from Brussels while cooperating with allies around the world.