European Affairs

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that co-operation is the key to this. We need to ensure that the whole of the European Union is working in concert. That is why we believe it is right to adopt not an ideological position on these elements, but an entirely pragmatic one, whereby we will opt in to justice and home affairs issues where it is in British interests to do so, and where that is not in our interests, we will leave the issue to one side. My argument against the Conservatives, which I believe my right hon. Friend shares, is that they sometimes adopt too ideological a position on these elements.