It will take Churchillian clarity to guarantee Europe's defence
Today Europe again finds itself at a moment of great consequence. The war in Ukraine has shattered the illusion that our continent's peace and security are settled. As threats mount at our borders and beyond, we are once again reminded that freedom must be safeguarded through shared effort and collective resolve.
Next week, the UK and EU will meet at a summit that could – if the political will is there – mark the beginning of a new chapter in our strategic relationship. Independence from the European Union need not equate to isolation. Our security is inextricably linked to that of our neighbours, and it is imperative that we stand united in the face of shared threats. We have a duty – indeed, a pressing national interest – to work more closely with our continental partners in the defence of our continent.
Now is the moment for both sides to agree a new Security and Defence Partnership. This was envisioned in the 2019 Political Declaration, signed by a Conservative government, which promised a broad, comprehensive and balanced defence relationship. The Government must deliver on that commitment. Such a framework would establish regular consultation and cooperation across the full spectrum of security and defence issues, anchored by an annual high-level UK-EU Security and Defence Dialogue.
This is not a theoretical exercise. A structured partnership would allow Britain to engage meaningfully in areas where we have both capacity and interest. It would ensure that we have a seat at the table when EU Council-level discussions take place on issues that affect us – or where our voice could help shape Europe's collective response.
Britain once played a leading role in European defence missions across the globe. The UK hosted the operational headquarters for Operation ATALANTA, which tackled piracy off the coast of Somalia. We were a major contributor to Operation ALTHEA in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which continues to underpin stability in the Western Balkans. In today's geopolitical climate, a renewed British role in such missions would serve both our strategic interests and the broader cause of European security.
A new partnership must also enable the UK to participate in major European initiatives that are rapidly reshaping the continent's defence architecture. Earlier this year, the EU launched a €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) fund. The aim is clear: to strengthen European defence capabilities through coordinated investment and common procurement.
Participation would deliver strategic and economic benefits to both the UK and the EU. It would enhance interoperability between our armed forces, reduce duplication, and provide long-term certainty for defence manufacturers on both sides of the Channel. As Europe seeks to build scale and resilience in its defence industrial base, it would be short-sighted and counterproductive for the EU to exclude one of the continent's most capable military powers.
This is not about rejoining the European Union. It is about doing what is right for Britain and what is necessary for Europe. We are living through a moment of extraordinary global uncertainty. Our adversaries do not distinguish between EU and non-EU countries. They target our values, our institutions, our infrastructure. To stand apart risks division and decline; to stand together is to lead with strength and purpose.
In Churchill's time, Britain helped liberate Europe through courage, sacrifice and leadership. Today, we must help defend it with the same clarity of purpose. A new Security and Defence Partnership with the EU is not a retreat from sovereignty – it is the strategic exercise of it. It is a bold and necessary step to ensure that Britain remains a central pillar in the defence of the democratic world.
If VE Day taught us anything, it is that peace can never be taken for granted. Alliances, when forged with mutual respect and shared purpose, amplify our strength rather than diminish it. That principle shaped the post-war order – and it must guide us now.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
6 minutes ago
- NBC News
Starvation in Gaza divides many Jewish Americans
Heartbreaking images of children starving in Gaza have caused what some Jewish Americans call a 'rupture' between supporters of Israel's offensive in its current form and those who oppose how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's government is managing the war. Frustrated by the bloodshed, pressure is mounting on the United States and the international community to take better control of chaotic food distribution sites. 'We're seeing not only divisiveness, but hatred between us, and that's not a good thing for the future,' said Rabbi Erez Sherman of Sinai Temple, a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles. 'So how do we not solve it? How do we work on that?' But support for Israel remains ironclad among many American Jewish groups and rabbis, who argue that Hamas is preventing humanitarian aid from reaching innocent civilians. 'Israel has facilitated an extraordinary amount of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, in wartime, and that's really an unprecedented situation,' said Belle Etra Yoeli, spokesperson for the American Jewish Committee, which recently ran a full-page ad in The New York Times with the image of an Israeli hostage who remains in Hamas custody. 'The Palestinian civilians who have been caught in the crossfire throughout this entire war because of Hamas' actions should not be suffering,' she added. 'Israel doesn't want that.' Nearly 1,400 people have been killed and more than 4,000 have been injured seeking food in Gaza, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week. At least 859 people have been killed near sites operated by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, a controversial American- and Israeli-backed organization, the United Nations said. The foundation's executive director, Johnnie Moore, said Hamas is largely responsible for the killings and dismissed news reports about people dying by Israeli gunfire. 'We have not seen the Israeli military do anything that remotely aligns with some of these accusations,' he said. 'It is a quite evident fact that Hamas has killed intentionally probably hundreds of people in proximity not to just our sites, to U.N. distribution sites, as a means of sort of misattributing those attacks either to the IDF or to being in proximity to GHF,' he added, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. To address escalating concerns over the humanitarian crisis, synagogues across Jewish movements in the United States have organized roundtables with the executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. At an event with GHF hosted last month by Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, reactions were mixed, according to Sherman, the rabbi, who led the discussion. Some people were shocked that an organization that has come under so much criticism was allowed to present its case. Others appreciated hearing directly from people on the ground. 'How do you block evil from your midst while also feeding the hungry and supporting the orphan and widow?' Sherman said after the roundtable, referring to Psalm 146. 'To me, it's an impossible task, and I give credit to somebody who is at least trying to do that.' Polling suggests Jewish Americans are divided over Netanyahu's handling of the war. According to a Pew Research Center report, 53% of Jewish Americans say they lack confidence in his leadership, while 45% say they have confidence. About 6 million Jews live in the United States, or 2% of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. The poll was conducted in April, before GHF began its operations in Gaza. Supporters of Netanyahu's government, including several Jewish American organizations, have said Hamas is spreading misleading information about who is to blame for ongoing violence at aid sites, a claim Hamas has repeatedly denied. They have also criticized detractors for losing focus on the remaining Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas. 'All of this can just be stopped anytime if Hamas puts down its weapons,' said Orthodox Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization that supports Netanyahu's government. An emerging concern echoed by several organizations and rabbis is that Netanyahu's position is not creating a safer Israel or global environment for Jewish people. Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of nonprofit advocacy organization J Street, said the ongoing violence is exposing Israelis and Palestinians to unnecessary bloodshed. J Street, which supports a two-state solution, opposed Netanyahu years before the war. 'If you say to people you must be pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel, then we're condemning ourselves and our kids to a never-ending conflict,' Ben-Ami said Monday. But according to Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of Kol Tzedek, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Philadelphia, the war is creating an 'existential rupture' that is pitting friends and family members against one another. 'It's catastrophic,' he said. 'We're wrestling with the very question 'Do we belong to each other?'' Fornari was among more than 40 people arrested outside Trump Tower in New York City earlier this month as they shouted for the United States to stop arming Israel and feed Gaza. He was arrested for investigation of blocking traffic and obstruction, his third arrest since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023, he said. Some posters and signs displayed outside Trump Tower referred to an ancient maxim about the moral obligation to speak out against injustice, Fornari said. 'It says anyone who has the power to speak out and chooses not to do so is responsible for it,' he said. Handcuffed near Fornari was Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T'ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization. Jacobs said she supported Israel's military response to Hamas' terrorist attack in 2023, which killed 1,200 people and led to the taking of 250 hostages. The strike, the worst one-day attack on Jews since the Holocaust, shocked the world. Since then, more than 61,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and much of the territory has been destroyed. Jacobs began questioning Netanyahu's strategy as more and more civilians in Gaza were killed, she said. In July, she denounced American Jewish leaders who had not spoken out against the humanitarian crisis unfolding thousands of miles away. 'Privately, Jewish lay leaders are anguished over Gaza. Publicly, they fear being labeled antisemitic,' she wrote in an opinion column in The Forward, a Jewish American newspaper. Jacobs has been called antisemitic by other Jewish people who support Netanyahu and shunned by legacy Jewish organizations, she said. Some of it, she said, comes from a legitimate fear of prejudice. In May, two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and a Colorado pro-Israeli hostages group was attacked with two Molotov cocktails in June. There have also been reports of anti-Jewish slurs and signs at college campuses and pro-Palestinian protests across the country. The cultural fallout has been playing out in living rooms and across kitchen tables. Sonya Meyerson-Knox, a spokesperson for the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, which has opposed the war since 2023, said a member was uninvited to Shabbat family dinners because of differing opinions about the war. The group was suspended from several campuses, including Columbia University's, over allegations it intimidated Jewish students and made them feel unsafe during pro-Palestinian protests last year. Jewish Voice for Peace maintains that its views are not antisemitic. 'It is not unique in Jewish history for Jews to be in fierce disagreement with each other,' she said. 'What is unique is that there seems to be an effort to weaponize one-half of our community against the other.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Call for free bus passes to help under-22s into work
Under-22s in England should be given free bus passes to help them get into work and education, according to a report by MPs. The number of bus journeys taken in England has dropped in recent years, while fares have risen faster than inflation, it said. This was a barrier to opportunity and growth in some areas, MPs found, recommending a pilot scheme of free bus travel at any time of day for under-22s. The Department for Transport said it was providing "£1bn in multi-year funding to improve the reliability and frequency of bus services across the country". Since January 2022, everyone in Scotland aged between five and 22 has been entitled to free bus travel. In England, the number of bus passenger journeys had dropped from 4.6 billion in 2009 to 3.6 billion in 2024, the report by the Transport Committee said. Some smaller towns and rural areas have no bus services at all, or buses that run so infrequently that "they do not meaningfully add to people's transport options", it said. A 2019 study found that some 57% of jobseekers lived in areas where they could not reach a centre of employment within 45 minutes by bus. "High bus fares and limited local provision can severely restrict young people's access to education, employment, and other opportunities," the report said. 'We rely on public transport' Alex Mustafa, 19, says she uses the bus all the time as she can't drive due to health and financial reasons and would benefit from a free bus pass. "It would also help poorer young people like myself who rely on public transport to better plan for social connections without needing to worry about bus cost on top of how expensive it is to go out as it is," she said. Alex says she has been left waiting for a bus for over an hour before and has been late to work and missed social events due to cancelled buses. "It's very difficult to live life according to plan when you have to plan around an unreliable schedule. Trains are sometimes better, but they also come with a higher cost and they're more limiting with location," she said. Roman Dibden, chief executive of youth charity Rise Up, said it sees young people turn down job interviews and training all the time because they can't afford the bus fare. "Free bus passes for under-22s would remove a huge barrier, opening up access to jobs, apprenticeships, and training - especially in communities where opportunity isn't on your doorstep." 'Support people who struggle costs-wise' Dylan Lewis-Creser, 21, is a student in town planning and also stood as a Green Party candidate for Walkley Ward in the local elections in May 2024. They told the BBC they use the bus quite a lot to travel around Sheffield as driving is too expensive. "A free bus pass would mean I could get to and from university and work without paying £10 a week, which adds up significantly as a student on a low budget," they said. "That cost is amplified when considering changing buses to get to other job opportunities and elsewhere, like hospitals." Dylan thinks there needs to be more discussion around "making transport accessible, affordable and reliable." "Part of that would be supporting people who often struggle costs-wise to do that, such as young people," they said. "We've seen how it's boosted young people using buses in Scotland, and it only makes sense to extend that policy." Bus passengers spend £39.1 billion in local businesses every year, according to research from KPMG. But experts told the Transport Committee that the bus sector's contribution to the economy declined by around £8.9 billion between 2011 and 2023. The report said: "The current deregulated nature of the bus sector can encourage commercial operators to "deprioritise" less profitable routes, often leaving vulnerable communities without a service." 'Social exclusion' The committee heard that older people were particularly deterred from using the bus if they felt unsafe at bus stops. The report recommended improvements to bus stops and shelters such as screen showing real-time information. Jane Bishop is the chief executive of North Norfolk Community Transport, a charity that provides low-cost dial-a-ride services in the local area. She says for some people bus services mean the difference between being able to stay in their homes or having to move into assisted living. "Most of our passengers are older people, but not all," she told the BBC. "A lot of people, we're the only people they see every week." "They become friends with the other people on their route so it's a great tool for combatting loneliness," Ms Bishop said. But, she added, "it's a lottery whether there is a community transport in your area". Fare cap The cap on bus fares outside London was increased to £3 last year. The committee said fare caps were most beneficial to people in rural areas, as they tended to take longer journeys or had to use multiple buses for one trip. But the report was critical of the short-term nature of funding for bus services, saying it has "hampered local authorities' ability to improve services". "Five-year settlements in other transport sectors like rail and the strategic road network have enabled greater certainty and promoted strategic planning," it said. "Bus services, the most widely used form of public transport, require a similar commitment." Bus services are devolved in England, meaning they are the responsibility of local authorities. Individual councils could choose to offer concessions to under-22s. The Local Government Association (LGA) welcomed the committee's recommendation to end "stop-start funding" for buses. A spokesperson said: "Bus services provide an essential mode of public transport in local communities, relied upon by millions of people. "More work is needed to attract them back onto buses to ensure services are sustainable for our communities. Stop-start funding risks losing passengers, with patronage difficult to recover if and when money is found." Steff Aquarone, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the Transport Committee, said the report shows the need for "a different model for rural public transport". He said local councils cannot heavily subsidise bus fares as in other countries, but "if you put buses on at the time people want to travel, going to places they want to go, people will use them". Additional reporting by Kris Bramwell. 'I've applied for hundreds of jobs': One in eight youths not in work or education Free bus scheme clocks up 21 million journeys
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
US accuses UK of 'significant human rights issues' and restricting free speech
The US State Department has accused the UK of having "significant human rights issues", including restrictions on free speech. The unflattering assessment comes via a new version of an annual Human Rights Practices report, with its publication coinciding with Vice President JD Vance's holiday in the Cotswolds. Politics Hub: Follow latest updates and analysis It says human rights in the UK "worsened" in 2024, with "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression", as well as "crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism" since the 7 October Hamas attack against Israel. On free speech, while "generally provided" for, the report cites "specific areas of concern" around limits on "political speech deemed 'hateful' or 'offensive'". Sir Keir Starmer has previously defended the UK's record on free speech after concerns were raised by Mr Vance. In response to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: "Free speech is vital for democracy around the world including here in the UK, and we are proud to uphold freedoms whilst keeping our citizens safe." The US report highlights Britain's public space protection orders, which allow councils to restrict certain activities in some public places to prevent antisocial behaviour. It also references "safe access zones" around abortion clinics, which the Home Office says are designed to protect women from harassment or distress. They have been criticised by Mr Vance before, notably back in February during a headline-grabbing speech at the Munich Security Conference. The report also criticises the Online Safety Act and accuses ministers of intervening to "chill speech" about last summer's murders in Southport, highlighting arrests made in the wake of the subsequent riots. Ministers have said the Online Safety Act is about protecting children, and repeatedly gone so far as to suggest people who are opposed to it are on the side of predators. Read more politics news: The report comes months after during a summit at the White House, cutting in when Donald Trump's VP claimed there are "infringements on free speech" in the UK. "We've had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that," the PM said. But Mr Vance again raised concerns during a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at his country estate in Kent last week, saying he didn't want the UK to go down a "very dark path" of losing free speech. The US State Department's report echoes similar accusations made by the likes of Nigel Farage and Elon Musk. The Trump administration itself has been accused of trying to curtail free speech and stifle criticism, most notably by targeting universities - Harvard chief among them.
