thetorydiary

The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling addressed the Heritage Foundation yesterday, during a visit to Washington DC. In his speech he highlighted the importance of US-UK co-operation on intelligence, winning in Af-Pak, tackling hate preaching and ending the ghetto-isation of multiculturalism. Less comfortable, I imagine, for his Heritage audience was his strong support for closing Guantanamo Bay and the ending of other Bush-era security policies. Mr Grayling said a Conservative government would not compromise historic liberties in fighting the war on terror.

Key extracts from Mr Grayling's speech are below and the full text is here:

Co-operation with Washington on intelligence: "I am absolutely clear that whether it be in matters of intelligence, diplomacy or commerce, the close alliance with the United States is and will remain indispensable to the United Kingdom.  When critics of our closeness to the US fight against terrorism complain that this puts our citizens at risk, the honest answer is that without the intelligence cooperation we enjoy, British citizens would be at greater risk still."

Ending the international breeding grounds for terror, in Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Another key element of our approach is the military contribution to countering terrorism.  The single most urgent priority in foreign policy if we come to government will be the American, British and wider NATO commitment in Afghanistan... A decade ago, Afghanistan was a training camp for international terrorism. It was the country from which Osama Bin Laden freely operated before 9/11. Whatever the challenges we face in bringing lasting stability to that country, we cannot go back to the way things were. Afghanistan cannot again be allowed to become a base that is used by international terrorists to pose a strategic threat to the US, the UK, and our allies and partners... Pakistan should be another major priority for us and for our international allies and friends. We must do everything we can to help Pakistan secure a stable, prosperous and democratic future, with a Government capable of controlling terrorist threats and playing an active role in securing a stable Afghanistan. Our connections to Pakistan as a nation, through the very large number of family ties between Britain and Pakistan, give us a particularly important role in this. What happens in Pakistan is particularly important for a number of reasons. It is now the base for the remaining leaders of Al Qaeda. To some degree the tribal homelands in particular have become a successor to Afghanistan in providing training for would-be terrorists. The progress that the Pakistani government has made in recent weeks in tackling the threat that it faces from the Taleban is very welcome. We will be much less secure as nations if large parts of Pakistan are under the control of militants."