Spymaster says Brexit will leave UK in the cold

The former head of British foreign intelligence has warned that the country will find it harder to influence international affairs after Brexit because its economy will decline.

“Your power and influence in the world is directly related to the performance of your economy, so in the short term — the next five years or so — if I’m right that the economy is going to take a hit, then our influence will diminish in that period,” ex-MI6 chief John Sawers told legislators from parliament’s upper house on Thursday.

Sawers, who voted for Britain to remain in the EU in the referendum in 2016, even suggested that perhaps the split would not go ahead: “Brexit, assuming it goes ahead,” would make diplomacy harder with “difficult” countries like Russia, Iran and North Korea.

“What’s more, the UK can’t rely on the US to take up the slack,” Sawers said.

He made the point that the UK’s foreign and defence policy “has been predicated for the last 75 years on a very close partnership with the US”, which could no longer be relied upon as Donald Trump pursues his “America First” agenda.

“We are entering into an era where our ability to rely on that partnership is not as great as it was in the past,” Sawers said.

“I don’t see us being able to hedge our bets by floating into the mid-Atlantic and being able to play the same sort of role at a distance from the European Union.”/Bloomberg