Brexit no risk to intelligence sharing with US, says Obama

INTELLIGENCE sharing between American and British spies “wouldn’t be affected” by Britain leaving the European Union, President Barack Obama has said.

The US president also predicted “enormous consequences” for Britain and other European countries if no action is taken in Libya.

Mr Obama’s comments came after Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, said that British ground combat troops could go to Libya in the future.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Obama scotched suggestions that Britain leaving the EU would damage the close intelligence cooperation between the UK and USA.

He said: “They wouldn’t be affected in the sense that our intelligence teams work extremely close, our militaries work extremely closely together.” Mr Obama said any impact would be in Europe where Britain is currently working hard to ensure greater information sharing about extremists between EU countries.

“Where it would have an impact is that we also have to make sure that continental Europe is safe in order to keep us safe, and the fact that the UK is involved in conversations about how we upgrade information sharing in continental Europe.”

Mr Obama is now in Germany meeting with David Cameron, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and other leaders of the G5 to discuss stemming the flow of migrants from Libya by placing EU naval patrols in Libyan waters. Mr Cameron unveiled plans last month to deploy warships to stop people smugglers within sight of the Libyan coast within months. Mr Hammond told The Sunday Tele

graph that he cannot “rule anything out” as he does not know how the situation in the north African country will evolve. But he said the question of British ground, sea or air power taking action in Libya would be put to MPs.