Both NATO and the European Union are vital pillars of British security, the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Emily Thornberry has said, following a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

During two days of meetings with senior officials from across the alliance – both military and civilian – Mrs Thornberry was told repeatedly that co-operation between the EU and NATO is vital at an operational level, and that ongoing work to strengthen ties between the two institutions is a top priority for the transatlantic alliance.

Officials pointed out that EU-NATO co-operation has been integral to the success of operations such as the counter-piracy campaign off the Horn of Africa, where EU and NATO-led military operations have been complemented by EU capacity-building. One official revealed that this has included EU funding for building prisons in Kenya, without which it would have been impossible to detain captured pirates.

The United States’ permanent representative to NATO, His Excellency Mr Douglas Lute, told Mrs Thornberry that the EU was leading the way in tackling some of the key security challenges affecting the UK and the rest of Europe, including migration, terrorism and risks arising from failing states beyond NATO’s immediate borders.

Mr Lute argued that it is the EU that has “the resources, the mandate and the expertise” to tackle the root causes of these problems, and that to “pull up the drawbridge and stay inside fortress NATO” would not be enough to keep the UK safe in the twenty-first century.

Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, said:  

“In recent days, we have been told by Leave campaigners that the EU is irrelevant to British security, because NATO is the only alliance that counts. We have even heard arguments that the EU is undermining NATO.

“But, as NATO officials themselves have repeatedly made clear to me in the past two days, the EU and NATO are two sides of the same coin.

“When it comes to territorial defence, NATO has always been the alliance that counts. That will not change. But the EU has a vastly different set of tools and capabilities, meaning that it too plays an indispensable role in keeping the British people safe.

"I agree 100 per cent with the United States’ permanent representative to NATO: pulling up the drawbridge is not the way to keep Britain safe.”

ENDS