Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has issued a dire warning over any tightening of ties with the EU in the wake of yesterday’s European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace.
Sir Keir Starmer had met with leaders and delegates from across the continent at Winston Churchill’s birthplace as he pledged a “reset” of British relations with the bloc.
And over in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected to her role by secret ballot for another five years; VDL, as she’s known, had pushed for a “European Defence Union” in her re-election push as she looked to increase the bloc’s military independence with Russia’s war in Ukraine rumbling on.
Back in the UK, the backlash to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza continues to boil over – with a Green Party councillor in Bournemouth’s call for the town to drop its links to an Israeli city sparking protests and counter-protests outside its town hall.
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British seaside town dragged into Israel-Gaza row as Greens invoke ‘genocide’
Bournemouth has been urged to drop ties with an Israeli city by one of its Green Party councillors as the backlash to the country’s military offensive in Gaza rumbles on.
The Greens’ Joe Salmon, who sits on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, said the South Coast town should “de-twin” from Netanya in Israel – another famed beach resort – to protect its “reputation”.
Bournemouth has been twinned with Netanya since 1995 – but Salmon said the former should sever its relationship with the latter over the “plausible case for genocide” against Israel raised by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Four signs which display Bournemouth’s twin cities – Netanya, alongside Lucerne in Switzerland – had had plaques containing the Israeli city’s name removed in a co-ordinated campaign which sparked protests and counter-protests outside Bournemouth’s town hall.
Farage: Starmer’s Brussels ‘reset’ a ‘massive mistake’
Farage slammed the EU as VDL pushed the bloc on with its ‘Defence Union’
PA
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has issued a dire warning over any tightening of ties with the EU in the wake of yesterday’s European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace.
Sir Keir Starmer had met with leaders and delegates from across the continent at Winston Churchill’s birthplace as he pledged a “reset” of British relations with the bloc.
And over in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected to her role by secret ballot for another five years.
VDL, as she’s known, had pushed for a “European Defence Union” in her re-election push as she looked to strengthen Europe’s military independence with Russia’s war in Ukraine rumbling on and the US election looming large.
But long-time Eurosceptic Farage wasn’t so buoyed.
Speaking to the Sun, the Brexit heavyweight warned that “anything that takes us closer to a European Defence Union is a massive strategic mistake.”
Farage continued: “If you want America to walk away, get close to the European Union.
“You cannot have two military command centres based in Brussels.”