Londoners are right to oppose Brexit: Our security is more important than our sovereignty
Londoners chose Sadiq Khan as their mayor over Zac Goldsmith on Thursday. Sadiq is a declared In-er and Zac is an Out-er. All the expert pollsters – who can get things wrong – point to London being a three-quarters In city.
As both a businessman and London’s first deputy mayor for policing and crime for the last four years, I share the pragmatic instincts of the vast majority of Londoners. Any freedom gained by Brexit will come at the expense of opportunity.
This also puts me at odds with Boris. Housing was the number one issue in this mayoral election. I grew up in a semi-detached suburban London home. Both Boris and I want a semi-detached relationship with the other 27 EU member states. It’s just that I believe it is better to shape that relationship from inside the EU as a full member of the club.
Security is more important than sovereignty. London will be safer inside the EU in a dangerous and increasingly unstable world. Cross-border intelligence sharing, facilitated by Europol and Eurojust, expedites bringing criminals and terrorists to justice. Our domestic security is boosted by EU instruments like the European Arrest Warrant and Passenger Name Record databases.
Read more: Five Eyes: Brexit will enhance – not hurt – Britain's security
When crimes do take place, the European Arrest Warrant allows us to send suspects back to face justice in other parts of the EU and swiftly bring those back who might escape abroad. This was exactly what happened when Hussain Osman, who attempted to blow up the Tube in July 2005, fled to Italy. Instead of lengthy extradition procedures, which used to take up to 18 months, we were able to bring him back within a couple of weeks. As an EU member, Britain has the right to opt into the Schengen top security database to check the names of people crossing its border.
A popular fiction pedalled by the Out campaign claims the UK’s EU membership prohibits us from barring access to Britain for suspected criminals and terrorists. This is simply not true. Over 6,000 non-British EU citizens were turned away by the UK Border Agency in the last six years on the grounds of their potential risk to public safety, further strengthened by David Cameron’s recent deal.
Britain has joined the EU-wide Prüm convention for sharing fingerprints and DNA, which we will fully implement next year – unless we leave the EU. It takes an average of 143 days for a DNA match to be returned through the Interpol process, but under Prüm it will be 15 minutes.
Those advocating that we leave the EU have not been able to say how we could negotiate equivalent security arrangements with member states from outside. Turning our back on the EU would undermine our safety in the future and would put at risk the intelligence-sharing and international cooperation that our law enforcement agencies rely on.