Theresa May ‘will offer to keep close security links with EU in bid to advance Brexit deal’

Liz Bates

Theresa May will reportedly offer to keep close security links with the EU in order to advance a Brexit deal.



The Prime Minister will pledge to maintain the UK’s membership of the European arrest warrant and Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.

Mrs May will set out the intention as part of series of speeches by senior ministers designed to clarify Britain’s plan for exiting the EU.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is expected to give an address on Wednesday, while the Prime Minister will speak in Munich on Saturday as part of a campaign Number 10 has dubbed "the road to Brexit".

Brexit Secretary David Davis, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington will also play a part in setting out the Government’s Brexit vision over the next three weeks.

However, it is understood that two of Mrs May’s closest allies, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Chancellor Philip Hammond will not give speeches.

In her address next weekend the Prime Minister plans to make the case for maintaining the European Arrest Warrant, saying it has kept British citizens safe.

But the pledge is expected to spark opposition among hardline Brexiteers who oppose the scheme because it is policed by the European Court of Justice and leads to British citizens being sent abroad for trial.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said: “Whatever the utility of the arrest warrant it is imperative to ensure that the jurisdiction of the ECJ does not prevail.”

Meanwhile, the Sun on Sunday reports that Mrs May is preparing to withhold payments to the EU if Brussels denies the UK voting rights on new EU directives during the two year transition period.

An ally told the newspaper: “The Prime Minister is determined not to be pushed around while we are still paying our contributions.

“If they want to take our money and foist new rules on us then she will insists on retaining our full voting rights.

“She accepts that failure to do so will turn Britain into a vassal state.

"That’s why she will make clear that if we have no say, then there’ll be no paying in, either.”