Eurosceptics playing into Vladimir Putin's hands, says Labour
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Version 0 of 1. The willingness of Vladimir Putin to test European resolve has exposed the weakness of the Eurosceptic case and it requires reinvigorated British membership of the European Union, according to the shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden. In a speech to the Fabian Society on Wednesday, McFadden will attempt to widen the case for the EU from trade to security and shared European values saying: “The changing geopolitical security situation is leaving Euroscepticism behind.” He will say: “Britain‘s debate about its future relationship with the EU risks almost entirely ignoring the issue of our collective security. This is a mistake we can no longer afford. “It is utterly incoherent for our prime minister to call for tougher European action against President Putin in one breath and then threaten to leave the EU in the next. Security is the unspoken dimension of this European debate. “This is no time for democratic nations to consider breaking from their allies. While Eurosceptics crave the breaking of ties to the EU, the security situation demands common action and resolve.” His intervention was welcomed by Lord David Hannay, a crossbench peer and former British ambassador to the UN as “a breath of fresh air in a so far stagnant pre-election debate on European issues. He is right to argue that EU membership is about much more than simply trade and investment, important though these benefits are”. McFadden suggests: “If the EU were to splinter or split, no one would be more pleased than President Putin. It is not an accident that the political forces President Putin admires are those anti-EU forces of the populist left and right. Nor is it an accident that the Front Nationale in France has received loans of millions of euros from a Russian bank. And it is no accident either that Putin has been signalled out for admiration by Nigel Farage as an operator”. McFadden is not echoing the call from some EU leaders for a European army. He says the hard edge of Britain’s security in Europe will continue to be provided by Nato, but the commitment to the common values represented by the EU is crucial to future security of the UK. He attacks David Cameron’s retreat from the world stage: “Whenever the west has been tested in the past, it has looked to Britain. Today, such is the confusion and incoherence of the British government’s position, some are no longer looking. “As military chiefs have pointed out, on Ukraine and other towering issues of global security, this government has been content to preside over a shrinking of Britain’s role, leaving us a more marginal player on the international stage. “The choice facing us at the election is not just about the deficit or public services. It is about Britain’s place in the world and our sense of ourselves. It is time those of us who want to maintain Britain’s role as a country with global reach, not shrinking from the world but helping to shape it, time we stepped up our case.” |