The UK risks becoming a ‘sanctuary’ for Europe’s crime bosses after 1 December, a prominent figure at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe has warned.

Speaking at last month’s CCBE plenary in Verona, criminal law committee member Helen Malcolm QC berated the government’s ‘utterly pointless’ opt-out from 135 European crime and justice measures on that date. ‘Why opt out of what is likely to take months, if not years, to renegotiate?,’ she told the Gazette.

‘Europe’s major criminals know the UK is going to be a sanctuary.’