UK troops risk lives to protect Europe, says Boris

BRITISH troops and spies are ‘putting their lives at risk’ every day to protect Europe from Islamic terrorists, Boris Johnson will say today – as he hits back at Brussels over claims the UK has abandoned the EU.

The Foreign Secretary will use a speech on tackling the jihadi threat to take a swipe at the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier over his criticism of Britain last week.

Mr Barnier suggested Britain was selfish in voting Leave at a time when several EU countries had faced major attacks by Islamic State terrorists.

‘Rather than stay shoulder to shoulder with the union, the British chose to be on their own again,’ he said.

But Mr Johnson will stress that UK commitment to European security is ‘unconditional’ on the outcome of Brexit talks. ‘Every day around the world I can tell you that British serv-

ing men and women are putting their lives at risk to roll up terrorist networks … to thwart them and bring them to justice,’ he will say.

‘They are making good on what the Prime Minister has rightly called the unconditional commitment of the British people to the security of our European friends, not just in this continent but beyond.’

Mr Johnson will hit out at claims the West is responsible for the rise of terror groups such as IS and Al Qaeda. He will warn that the propaganda produced by the groups ‘can have the addictive power of cocaine’.

During the general election campaign this year, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn drew links between UK involvement in military interventions overseas and terrorism at home.

But Mr Johnson will say: ‘To assert that the terrorism we see on the streets of Britain and America is some kind of punishment for adventurism and folly in the Middle East is to ignore that these so-called punishments are visited on peoples with no such history in the region.’

He will call for unity with Muslims around the world who are ‘equally determined’ to fight Islamist terror.

‘Unconditional commitment’