FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Sir Richard Dearlove urged the Prime Minister to “break away” from the “poisonous” EU and build our own system to rival Europe’s encrypted navigation system. Arguing that we “don’t need” Galileo because we are trusted users of the American GPS systems, Sir Richard urged Mrs May not to give away the UK’s “crown jewels” and said any attempt to keep us in the programme amounted to “Project Fear Mark 2”. In a joint statement with senior defence adviser Professor Gwythian Prins, Sir Richard said: “Staying in the EU Galileo military satellite system after Brexit is a danger to UK defence and security. “We shouldn’t touch Galileo with a barge pole because it would compromise our trustworthiness in the eyes of our true allies, the USA and the Anglosphere Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance.

“It is part of Project Fear Mark 2 to suggest we should try to stay in. The truth is that Britain doesn’t need access to Galileo. “We are trusted users of US GPS. And Galileo is not viable without British participation. UK hi-tech aerospace contracts should be seamlessly redirected into UK national security.” The unprecedented statement comes amid a row over the UK’s continued access to Galileo after Brexit. A clique led by Martin Selmayr, the German secretary-general of the EU Commission, is trying to block Britain from the satellite project once we leave. This is despite the UK already investing £1billion in the £8.7billion endeavour and against the wishes of other EU states including France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. Mrs May has said we will build our own system if the EU denies us access to theirs. Singling out Bonn-born Mr Selmayr, the statement accused the EU of “actively seeking to damage British sovereign interests after Brexit”.

Sir Richard Dearlove

It added: “The EU wants to suck us dry of vital British technology while simultaneously excluding us from Galileo’s product, thereby harming our relationship with the USA. That is poison. “We should stand up to bullies. For UK defence and security it is clear that we should have no relations at all with the EU, but only with Nato and with friendly European states, bilaterally.” Urging Mrs May to “walk away from all agreements that UK officials have already made to keep UK subordinate to EU defence structures after Brexit,” the statement pleaded: “Do not compromise our security crown jewels.” Sir Richard and Professor Prins have long argued that the UK should break away and build an independent satellite system to rival Galileo, arguing it would “be all gain and no pain”. The call comes after Business Secretary Greg Clark last week asked the Treasury to fund a two-year feasibility study into creating a British replacement for Galileo.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has expressed support for a British satellite system should the EU continue to insist that the UK will have only limited access to Galileo after Brexit. An announcement could be made as early as next month to show that Britain is serious in its threat to walk away from Galileo if there is no agreement. A British absence from Galileo will “significantly impede” the project, according to government insiders. One source said: “There will be very large operational capability gaps on day one, with no obvious ways of plugging them. We are at the heart of Galileo, and the intelligence? We are at the heart of that too. We are so integral to the success of Galileo, it’s very difficult to see where the win is for the Commission.” Sir Richard, 73, was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a role fictionally known as M, and actually, informally known as C from 1999 to May 2004. Cambridge-educated Professor Prins is emeritus research professor at the London School of Economics and has advised Nato and the Ministry of Defence since the 1990s. He is currently a member of the Chief of Defence Staff’s Strategy Advisory Group.