The terrorist threat we face is serious in scale and duration. It is both international and home-grown

States not only use armed force to challenge us.  They play politics with the resources on which we depend, like gas and oil.  They launch electronic attacks against the systems that underpin our daily lives.  And they threaten regional stability through nuclear proliferation.

In addition, natural hazards, like flooding and disease, are increasing in frequency, scale and severity.

All of these challenges are transnational.  Meeting them requires concerted international co-operation and responses that cut across many policy areas – not only foreign affairs, defence and internal security, but energy, education, community cohesion, health, technology and the environment.

So government must adapt. Foreign and domestic policy cannot be treated separately in policy and budgetary terms.  We will introduce a proper National Security Council, a single National Security Budget and a Cabinet-level Security Minister to ensure a joined-up approach.

And government must have the right policies to help reduce our vulnerability:

• We need effective border security.  A Conservative Government will introduce a unified border police force.
• While intelligence, police and military tools will remain vital, we must also defend and make the argument for our shared liberal values.  That’s why, unlike Labour, we will tackle the extremism that fuels terrorist attacks – not just ‘violent extremism’.  And it’s why we will prioritise long-term political and social reform overseas.
• We need to protect and increase the capacity of our critical infrastructure so that we are able to withstand and respond to disruption.

Our approach will be outlined in detail in our National Security Green Paper, which will be published in the coming months.

Immigration can be a real benefit to the UK, but only if it is properly controlled with its impact on the economy, public services and social cohesion taken into account.  

Our approach will ensure that we admit both the right people for our economy and also the right number of people. For economic migrants from outside the EU, we propose a two-stage process:

• The first stage is making eligible for admission those who will benefit the economy
• The second stage is an annual limit to control the numbers admitted with regard to the wider effects on society and the provision of public services

A Conservative Government would also apply transitional controls as a matter of course in the future for all new EU entrants.  

To enforce such controls, and to prevent illegal immigration and combat criminals who compromise our security, we need a new, integrated approach to managing our borders.

So we will introduce a dedicated Border Police Force to bring together all the agencies responsible for border control.

Unlike Labour’s Border Agency, which does not even include the police, our force will have the power to stop, search, detain and prosecute the terrorists, traffickers and illegal immigrants who currently slip through the net. Only then will we be able to start making Britain safer.