May evades vote on EU arrest warrant to prevent Tory party from splitting

May’s shenanigans yesterday in the Commons over the European arrest warrant is the perfect example of how far relations with the EU are being treated as an outpost of internal Tory party politics. Any same person knows that the European Arrest Warrant and other key parts of EU cooperation, like criminal record checks and joint cross-border investigations, make sense because they catch criminals and increase safety for citizens across the EU. May promised a vote in Parliament on this, but astonishingly was then ducking and diving to avoid one at all costs because the government is running scared of the fanatically anti-EU Tory Right.

The motion due to be voted on in yesterday’s business in the House didn’t even mention the European Arrest Warrant. Instead it referred only to a document that includes 11 of the 35 measures requiring to be transposed into domestic law in order to meet the UK’s obligations, but again it doesn’t include the European Arrest Warrant. The Home Secretary’s opt-out and then opt-back-in has been a game of Eurosceptic hokey cokey for the sake of internal Tory party management – brazenly putting party interests before those of the country.

There are around 3,600 organised crime groups active in the EU and involved in drugs, human trafficking, online child exploitation, and theft. Cross-border crime is a reality, and to dispense with the European Arrest Warrant and cross-border EU cooperation to deal with it is deeply irresponsible, especially when it is pandering to back-bench ideological prejudice. The urgent need for this measure is shown by the fact that last year over 1,000 foreign criminals were deported under the European Arrest Warrant, mostly for drug trafficking, murder, fraud, child sex offences and rape. Senior police officers have made clear how important it is in enabling them to deport foreign criminals without going through a lengthy extradition process.

There are many recent examples to prove this. In 2005 an EAW enabled the UK to quickly extradite from Italy a fugitive bomber, Hussain Osman, who with accomplices had tried to carry out a terror attack in London. In 2012 Jason McKay was extradited from Poland within 2 weeks for murdering his partner, when under the old extradition arrangements it would have taken several years. Altogether the UK has deported over 4,000 criminals under the EAW, 95% of whom are foreign criminals removed from the UK. One such operation tackled a Romanian gang that was trafficking children into the UK, and resulted in the arrest of 126 suspects for human trafficking, benefit fraud, money laundering and child neglect, including the identification of 272 trafficking victims.

Playing political party games with police controls against crime on this scale and with such sickening human consequences is unforgiveable.

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