The Brexit deal does not touch on security and defence co-operation as Britain seeks “ruthless pragmatism” in finding mutually beneficial areas of interest for both sides as part of negotiations to reset UK-EU relations.
British minister for European Union relations Nick Thomas-Symonds said in an article for The Telegraph published on Tuesday that for the UK government, resetting relations with the EU means Britain will “become safer, more secure and more prosperous.”
He acknowledged that although people voted to leave the EU to get better public services, more jobs, less migration and more security, what they got instead were “years of chaos and a bad deal.”
His article on resetting UK-EU relations comes as it has been five years since the UK officially left the EU.
In the Brexit referendum in 2016, a majority voted in favour of the country leaving the EU.
After UK and EU representatives signed the Brexit agreement on January 24, 2020, the UK officially left the bloc on January 31 the same year.
“Yet, five years on, we can see some of the negative impacts of the current deal emerging here at home, as well as in Europe,” Thomas-Symonds stated.
The British minister noted that along with economic problems, borders will also become less secure after Brexit and the asylum system will be “thrown into crisis.”
He went on to say that the Brexit deal does not address security and defence co-operation.
Touching on the “false argument” that the UK should choose either America or Europe, Thomas-Symonds emphasised that for his government, the UK’s national interest is paramount and “demands that we work with both countries.”
“We will do so with a ruthless pragmatism, leaving ideologically driven division in the past in search of mutually beneficial areas of interest for both sides, within our red lines of no return to the single market, customs union, or freedom of movement,” he noted.
Since his first days in office, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made resetting UK-EU relations a centrepiece of his government’s foreign policy to help boost growth, improve the cost of living crisis and make borders more secure.
