EU army warning as Brexiteer warns bloc wants to ‘bring UK to heel’ after Blair blueprint
Ben Habib also fears any shift towards a centralised command and control structure would result in the UK effectively having no independent foreign policy.
The European Union is hell-bent on “bringing the UK to heel” with the establishment of a central military command and control structure headquartered in Brussels, the deputy leader of Reform UK has claimed in a move he said would be the “very antithesis of Brexit”.
Ben Habib, who is standing for Parliament in Wellingborough, was speaking the day after the publication of a report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change which called for Britain to conduct “with other European countries with advanced military capabilities”, an urgent review to identify military capabilities “where Europe is overly reliant on the US”.
Specifically the lengthy analysis calls for the Government to “explore a joint UK-EU defence-capability review to identify collective asset and capability shortfalls, and the UK’s potential participation in the European Defence Fund”.
Such a strategy, critics including Mr Habib argue, would simply pave the way for a European army, stripping away British sovereignty in the process.
He told Express.co.uk: “I know precisely where Tony Blair's mind is, and he would have us under a joint command control of Brussels.
“That's what technological advancement and interoperability is.
“All the weapons development that they're doing in the European Union is designed so that you integrate your technology and once you've integrated your technology you're incapable of fighting on your own.
“It’s an absolute disaster and Starmer is going to do it.”
Outlining his concerns, Mr Habib said: “The implications are obvious. You lose control of your defence.
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“The United Kingdom will not be able to defend itself - we will under a common command structure using technology which is integrated entirely into EU systems, and without which we won't be able to fight.”
Referring to the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation, Mr Habib continued: “From a legal perspective, the other thing is that signing up for Pesco requires is no questioning whatsoever of EU foreign policy - you have to accept that foreign policy without any question.
“So we would become another vassal state through the backdoor. I mean, everything is designed to bring the United Kingdom to its knees.”
Emphasising that the entire concept “flies in the face of Brexit completely”, Mr Habib pointed out that one of the key roles of the UK government was to defend the realm - a realm which did not include an “entire continent”.
He added: “Frankly, it’s not our bloody problem.”
The report, authored by among others General Sir Nick Carter, former Chief of the Defence Staff, and Michele Flournoy, former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, argued: “Given this complex, volatile and increasingly dangerous geopolitical context, this paper makes a compelling case for rethinking defence and national-security policy, particularly for middle powers like the UK and many of its European allies.
“A fresh assessment of strategic priorities and how best to achieve them is essential, along with hard choices about where to accept and manage risk, given that national resources for defence are never unlimited.”
Not only did the UK need to rethink strategy, the former Labour Prime Minister’s think tank said, but a “more centralised approach that better integrates all of the instruments of national power is critical”, together with “rethinking how the public and private sectors work together to achieve national objectives”.
