Johnson starts alignment with Trump’s America on military, defence and foreign policy

Boris Johnson has just pledged a full-scale review of Britain’s security, defence and foreign policy if his Conservative Party wins this month’s election, and called on international leaders meeting in London this week to modernise the way NATO is run – in an obvious alignment with Donald Trump’s administration.

The prime minister wants to evaluate how a vast section of Whitehall will work post-Brexit: from the role of the armed forces and British diplomacy to the legal framework for the nation’s security forces, and how to upgrade technology to combat terrorism. The review will be led from Johnson’s office at 10 Downing Street, according to a statement today.

His comments, coming just after a terror attack on London Bridge and less than two weeks before the election, are set to sharpen the debate over whether his Conservatives are better placed than the Labour Party to keep the country’s citizens safe.

Johnson had already promised to stop the automatic early release of people convicted of terror crimes after the suspect in Friday’s stabbing rampage was revealed to be out on parole. Many of the latest polls, taken before the attack, show the Tories still leading but with the gap narrowing.

With NATO leaders set for what threatens to be a fractious meeting with the presence of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson plotting to quit the European Union.

Johnson’s review plan also adds another leg to his party’s manifesto document. Buried on page 48, it promised to set up a commission “to look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts; the functioning of the Royal Prerogative; the role of the House of Lords; and access to justice for ordinary people.”

If Johnson is elected with a decent majority and his Brexit deal proceeds – it automatically provides the Prime Minister with new executive powers not seen in Britain for over 400 years.

In tune with Donald Trump – Foreign Minister Dominic Raab went a step further than the PM in linking the need to bolster NATO with the fallout from the London Bridge attack and called on all NATO members to pay their way, Raab said the organisation “needs to forge an even stronger Transatlantic unity of purpose“.

 

 

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