Britain ready to offer its troops to protect the EU post-brexit

BRITAIN will today use its military and intelligence assets as a bargaining chip to persuade the EU to open talks on a post-brexit trade deal.

David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, will remind Brussels just how important the UK is in helping the continent fight terrorism, cyber crime and “statebased military aggression” when he publishes a position paper on defence.

The offer of a “deep and special partnership” on defence and security, including the use of British military assets in EU operations, is intended as a carrot to entice EU negotiators.

However, when Theresa May used her Article 50 letter in March to warn the joint fight against crime and terrorism would be “weakened” if the two sides failed to reach an agreement she was accused of blackmail by EU figures.

It comes as chief of the general staff Gen Sir Nick Carter said that homeland defence and European defence and security were “increasingly interdependent”. At Chatham House in London last night he said: “I think our force design needs to based on our role in Europe. It’s about deterrence and reassurance and being ready if necessary to contribute to the defeat of a potential opponent. But that force structure has got to have the adaptability to influence, to fight and operate more globally, the socalled notion of a global Britain.”

Mr Davis’s position paper will offer not only to contribute British hardware and personnel to Eu-led operations such as migrant patrols in the Mediterranean, but also to co-operate on sanctions and agree “joint positions on foreign policy”.

Officials stressed it did not mean Britain would take part in a future European army.

The Government hopes that it will be enough to persuade the EU’S chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, to start discussing life after Brexit.

Mr Davis will say: “After we leave the European Union we will continue to face shared threats to our security, our shared values and our way of life. It’s in our mutual interest to work closely with the EU and its member states to challenge terrorism and extremism, illegal migration, cyber crime, and conventional state-based military aggression.”

The document, he will say, “highlights Britain’s world-class diplomacy and defence capabilities, our leading contribution to international development, and our desire to continue to use these as part of a deep and special partnership with the EU”.

Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, will say: “With the largest defence budget in Europe, the largest Navy, British troops and planes deployed across land, air and sea in Europe, our role in the continent’s defence has never been more vital. As we leave the EU, the UK and our European allies will ensure a close partnership that meets these shared challenges head-on.”