UK needs deal with EU to fight terrorism: Experts tell Theresa May

Police officers stand on duty outside a residential property on Springfield Street in Wigan, Greater Manchester on May 25, 2017, as their investigations continue into the May 22 terror attack at the Manchester Arena. (Photo by AFP)

Leading British security experts have told Prime Minister Theresa May that the UK needs to reach a deal with the European Union in order to combat terrorism.

The demand for the UK’s full participation in UE security and intelligence cooperation comes as May has announced wide-ranging new plans to counter extremism.

Meanwhile, fears are growing that Brexit could limit both the UK’s access to key European databases and British police forces’ access to essential tools in high-level, pan-European anti-terror probes.

On Saturday night, Dominic Grieve, the Tory chair of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, reinforced the calls from senior individuals including Sir Hugh Orde, former chief constable of the police service of Northern Ireland and former head of Europol Max-Peter Ratzel.

Grieve (pictured below) said full participation was necessary even if it meant giving in to EU rules and judicial oversight for the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

“Although our partnership with the US for intelligence sharing is extremely important, the fact is that the current terrorist threat is very much a European dimension issue. The Schengen database and knowing about who has moved where are all intimately dependent on European systems and we have got to try to remain in them,” he said.

“I think it is going to be very difficult, and the government and Parliament will have to face up to the fact that it might turn out during the Brexit negotiation that some sort of mechanism for the European court is going to be necessary,” he added.

This follows a terrorist attack in Manchester on Monday night that killed 22 people, including children, and wounded over 120 others.

The Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group took responsibility for the attack.

On Tuesday, UK police confirmed that British-born Salman Abedi carried out the attack by detonating a sophisticated device at the Manchester Arena. 

Police also said that Abedi was not the only person in connection with the attack and that 11 suspects have been arrested so far.