John Kerry has urged the UK to remain in the European Union, saying the continent needed to be united, after it emerged Barack Obama would intervene to encourage a remain vote in Britain’s EU referendum.



The US secretary of state said it was in his country’s interests for Britain to stay in the union at a time when it was facing a number of challenges.

“Europe is going to emerge stronger than ever, provided it stays united and builds common responses to these challenges,” he said at a security conference in Munich on Saturday. “Now obviously, the United States has a profound interest in your success, as we do in a very strong United Kingdom staying in a strong EU.”

President Obama plans to make “a big, public reach-out” to persuade British voters to stay in the EU once the referendum campaign begins.

Bob Corker, the chair of the US Senate foreign relations committee, said Obama was likely to focus on the need for the EU to remain united to combat the refugee crisis and the growing threat of Russian aggression in the Baltics, Ukraine and the Middle East. There are growing fears in Washington that the UK’s referendum is a dangerous gamble that could have disastrous consequences for the entire continent.

David Cameron told an audience of European leaders on Friday that the continent had to “stand together” against threats such as Islamic State and Russian aggression. The prime minister also appealed for Germany’s help in finalising his package of reforms before a summit to discuss them this week, stressing the countries’ shared interests and values.

Cameron said he made no apology for the fact that Britain was “argumentative and rather strong-minded”.

“The need to protect our sovereignty has always been paramount for us. But we are also an open nation,” he said. “That openness drove the decision to join in 1973. We have always been a country that reaches out. And I never want us to pull up the drawbridge and retreat from the world.

“So when it comes to the question of Britain’s future in Europe, my aim is clear: I want to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union.”

The Leave.EU spokesman Jack Montgomery said: “It might be convenient for John Kerry, who has repeatedly declined to support the UK in the Falklands, for us to be in the EU, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us.”