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Iain Duncan Smith: Being in EU puts UK at risk of terror attack

Jean-Marie de Peretti mourns his daughter Aurelie (33), one of the victims of the attacks in Paris. Picture by Peter Dejong, Associated Press
Jean-Marie de Peretti mourns his daughter Aurelie (33), one of the victims of the attacks in Paris. Picture by Peter Dejong, Associated Press Jean-Marie de Peretti mourns his daughter Aurelie (33), one of the victims of the attacks in Paris. Picture by Peter Dejong, Associated Press

BRITAIN'S membership of the European Union leaves the country vulnerable to a Paris-style terrorism attack, Iain Duncan Smith has warned.

Mr Duncan Smith - one of six ministers to declare for the "out" camp following Saturday's Cabinet meeting - said the UK's "open border" meant there was a lack of control over people entering the country.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said the EU was in "meltdown" over the migration issue and had shown itself incapable of handling the waves of people from Syria and elsewhere who were heading for the continent.

"What we see with the European Union is its incapacity to get its act together. That leads to tensions," he told BBC News.

"Who's to say in the next few years countries that have taken people from various areas aren't then going to give them leave to remain and even passports as we have seen in some cases? They in due course may well turn up again in the UK.

"So these are big issues further down the road for us because this open border does not allow us to check and control people who may come and may spend time. We see what happened in Paris where they spent ages planning and plotting.

"The present status of the open border we have right now, many of us feel, does actually leave that door open and we need to see that resolved."

His comments were immediately condemned by the pro-EU former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine.

"I hope that Mr Duncan Smith's comments about terrorism are not typical of the scaremongering that could so easily characterise those arguing to leave Europe," he told the Press Association.

"He has not a shred of evidence to support the statement that we would be safer outside the European Union. Anybody with any knowledge of how counter-terrorism activities work knows that our intelligence services are closely interwoven with those of our American and European colleagues.

"The most effective deterrence is intelligence and there is no argument to suggest our intelligence would be any stronger or more effective outside."