THERESA TRIES TO HAVE HER CAKE AND EAT IT

YESTERDAY, Theresa May trashed many of the claims for remaining. Here, Political Editor JAMES SLACK highlights the arguments which could have been delivered by the Out campaign – along with her reasons for ultimately siding with In.

MAY ON … THE ECONOMY

I want to deal with several arguments that should not count. The first is that, in the 21st century, Britain is too small a country to cope outside the European Union. That is nonsense. We are the fifth biggest economy in the world, we are growing faster than any economy in the G7, and we attract nearly a fifth of all foreign investment in the EU.

ON DEFENCE

We have a military capable of projecting its power around the world, intelligence services that are second to none, and friendships and alliances that go far beyond Europe. We have the greatest soft power in the world, we sit in exactly the right time zone for global trade, and our language is the world’s language. Of course Britain could cope outside the EU.

ON THE EU KEEPING THE PEACE

Neither is it true that the EU is the only reason the continent has been largely peaceful since the end of the Second World War. Nor is the decision we face anything to do with our shared cultural heritage with Europe. Of course we are a European country, but that in itself is not a reason to be an EU member state.

ON FREE MOVEMENT OF EU CITIZENS

Free movement rules mean it is harder to control the volume of European immigration – and as I said yesterday that is clearly no good thing – but they do not mean we cannot control the border.

ON INTELLIGENCE GATHERING

If we were not members of the European Union, of course we would still have our relationship with America. We would still be part of the Five Eyes, the closest international intelligence - sharing arrange - ment in the world. We would still have our

first-rate security and intelligence agencies. We would still share intelligence about terrorism and crime with our European allies, and they would do the same with us.

ON TRADE

Some say we would strike deals that are the same as the EU’s agreements with Norway, Switzerland or even Canada. But with all due respect to those countries, we are a bigger and more powerful nation than all three. Perhaps that means we could strike a better deal than they have. After all, Germany will still want to sell us their cars and the French will still want to sell us their wine.

ON EU EXPANSION

The states now negotiating to join the EU include Albania, Serbia and Turkey – countries with serious problems with organised crime, corruption, and sometimes even terrorism. Is it really right that the EU should just continue to expand, conferring upon all new member states all the rights of membership? It is time to question the principle of ever-wider expansion.

THE EUROZONE

There are risks in staying as well as leaving. There is a big question mark about whether Britain, as a member state that has not adopted the euro, risks being discriminated against as the countries inside the eurozone integrate further.

And why she’s backing staying in… EU DATA SHARING AND THE EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANT

We are safer inside. Outside the EU we would have no access to the European Arrest Warrant, which has allowed us to extradite more than 5,000 people from Britain to Europe in the last five years, and bring 675 suspected or wanted individuals to Britain to face justice.

THE SINGLE MARKET

We do not know on what terms we would win access to the single market. We do know that we would need to make concessions in order to access it, and those could well be about accepting EU regulations, making financial contributions, accepting free movement rules, or quite possibly all three combined. It is not clear why other EU member states would give Britain a better deal than they themselves enjoy.

THE UNION

If Brexit isn’t fatal to the European Union, we might find that it is fatal to the Union with Scotland. The SNP have already said that in the event that Britain votes to leave but Scotland votes to remain in the EU, they will press for another independence referendum.