11 May 2016•Update: 12 May 2016
LONDON
Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday warned that a decision by his country to leave the European Union would be an “unpatriotic” act.
Brown used a speech at the London School of Economics – his first major intervention in the U.K.’s referendum campaign – to back his successor David Cameron’s argument that the EU helped preserve peace and stability.
“You have got to think of the sweep of history here – for 1,000 years nations and tribes of Europe were fighting to the finish, murdering and maiming each other,” he said.
“There is no century except this one where Europe has been at peace,” he continued, adding that the countries of the continent were now battling with arguments and ideas rather than weapons.
Cameron had argued earlier this week that British separation from Europe had historically resulted in war on the continent – and that the U.K. eventually always intervened.
Brown’s intervention came on the same day the former director of Britain’s security services warned Brexit would leave the country more vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, who was director-general of MI5 between 2002 and 2007, told the foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House: “We would put ourselves in greater peril if we decided – as I earnestly hope we will not – to seek a divorce from a relationship which, whatever its bumps, has been of great value in the area of my experience, national security.
“We are undoubtedly safer in,” she said.
