Portsmouth MP criticises Obama's '˜woeful ignorance' over EU

Writing in The Telegraph, the Portsmouth North MP and armed forces minister said Barack Obama was unaware of security problems she says are caused by the EU.

She said Isis terrorists could ‘move unimpeded across Europe’ due to the ‘EU’s bull-headed desire to take down all frontiers’.

She said: ‘In Obama’s view, “The European Union doesn’t moderate British influence – it magnifies it.”

‘Unfortunately this opinion betrays a woeful ignorance of the practical reality of the EU’s impact on our security, and the interests of the UK and the US.

‘Obama warned on Friday that divisions in Europe will weaken Nato, but often those divisions are caused by the EU itself.

‘Obama confuses collective action and defence through Nato with the integration at all costs and damn the consequences ideology that too often motivates the EU.

‘The President must be unaware of the alarming weaknesses that allow Daesh terrorists to move unimpeded across Europe are the result of the EU’s bull-headed desire to take down all frontiers on the continent.

‘Even in this country, although we are outside the Schengen borderless zone, European free movement rules mean we cannot keep out those we suspect wish us harm if it is based on incomplete evidence.

‘Obama cannot appreciate how the ECJ has repeatedly undermined the arrangements which enable the UK and US to share intelligence.

‘I am sure the CIA would be happy to explain to him why that the creation of a EU intelligence agency will not result in intelligence being shared EU-wide.

‘Is he aware of the wasted resource a system which allows established EU missions, with billions invested in them, to be put in peril because one nation threatens to veto all EU funds, despite all other nations supporting it?’

Ms Mordaunt said Britain would ‘maintain the independent defence capability’ outside of the EU.