By Jenny Gross And Cassell Bryan-Low
LONDON--British Prime Minister David Cameron said the West needs
a tough, long-term response to Russia over tensions in Ukraine,
warning that he and other leaders were prepared to take sanctions
"to a whole different level" if Moscow ramps up its aggression.
Mr. Cameron discussed sanctions in an exclusive interview
Thursday, in which he also addressed his fight to retain his job in
what is expected to be a close national election in the U.K. in May
and the U.K.'s potential exit from the European Union. Mr. Cameron
has promised that if he wins he will negotiate reforms in the
country's relationship with Brussels and hold a referendum by 2017
on whether the U.K. should leave the EU.
Speaking during a train ride on the campaign trail, Mr. Cameron
said he believes "the right answer" is for the U.K. to remain
within a reformed EU but acknowledged he could still end up
overseeing Britain's exit from Europe. "You can't stay in an
organization if your employer, the British public, doesn't consent
to it," the prime minister said.
On events in Ukraine, he said the West must be prepared "to
settle in for a long and determined position" of pitting the weight
of the U.S. and the EU against Russia.
"If Russia is going to rip up the rule book of the 21st century
and destabilize a sovereign country, then the rest of the world
should be prepared to say to Russia, 'Well you can't rip up one
part of the international rule book while still having access to
international markets, international finance, international
systems,'" Mr. Cameron said.
His comments follow a video conference held earlier this week
between U.S. President Barack Obama, Mr. Cameron and other European
leaders. Scattered violence has continued in Ukraine despite last
month's cease-fire accord reached in the Belarusian capital of
Minsk.
Mr. Cameron said the leaders had agreed on the call to implement
tougher sanctions against Russia if the Minsk agreement fails. He
added they also were ready to take sanctions "to a whole different
level" if there was another incident like that in Debaltseve, the
strategic railway hub in Ukraine that pro-Russia rebels overran
last month in what Kiev and Western officials called a violation of
the cease-fire.
At home, Mr. Cameron is focused on the upcoming election. His
center-right Conservative Party is effectively neck-and-neck in
opinion polls with the center-left Labour Party, the main
opposition. Many analysts expect neither party to win the election
outright, which could result in a minority government or a
coalition. Mr. Cameron's failure to secure a majority in the 2010
election prompted him to form a coalition with the centrist Liberal
Democrats--the U.K.'s first peacetime coalition since the
1930s.
Mr. Cameron said it "is doable" for the Conservatives to win the
election but that he wasn't complacent. Mr. Cameron travelled in
the first class carriage of a regular train with a small entourage
of advisors and security personnel. He sat beside his famous red
box--which resembles a sturdy brief case and contains his official
documents.
Mr. Cameron wants to focus the election debate on the economy,
which experienced a strong recovery in 2014 after years of little
or no growth in the wake of the financial crisis. Labour argues
many British people have yet to benefit following five years of
prices rising faster than wages during the government's austerity
drive.
But he has also had to respond to an increasingly vocal public
debate on immigration, amid concerns among some British voters
about the strain on public services. Mr. Cameron looks set to fall
significantly short of fulfilling his promise of reducing net
migration to the tens of thousands by the general election.
The prime minister said the government's efforts to reduce
immigration from outside of the EU had made an impact, though "not
as big an effect as I would like." He also said he has been working
to reduce the influx from other EU members by making the U.K.'s
welfare system less attractive to other EU citizens, which he said
would "have a marked effect."
Also, Mr. Cameron defended Britain's security services following
lawmakers' questions over why they failed to apprehend the man
Western intelligence officials now believe is Islamic State
militant "Jihadi John" after tracking him for years. But he
acknowledged that more could be done to combat the threat from
foreign fighters.
It emerged last week that Western officials believe Jihadi John,
who appears in several videos of Western hostages being killed, to
be Mohammed Emwazi--a British man who had been on the radar of U.K.
intelligence agents since at least 2009.
The prime minister wouldn't comment on the identity of Jihadi
John. "I'm not going to give a running commentary on an individual
case where we're in the middle of very hard work with our partners
to find and put out of action these sorts of individuals and
groups." But, in general, "there's always more that can be
done."
He pointed to current government efforts, ranging from trying to
de-radicalize young British Muslims to assisting with security in
other countries that are vulnerable to terrorist groups. He also
said it is crucial that modern technology, such as developments in
encryption, doesn't overtake the ability of security forces to
intercept discussions between terrorists.
"We should not allow safe spaces--havens--for people to
communicate and so we have to, as technology advances, we have to
advance our legislation so that we don't give safe spaces," he
said.