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And Daniel Kawczynski believes Brexit offers the perfect opportunity for a Britain to re-examine its geopolitical priorities based around a renewed commitment to the alliance and what he termed an “alternative bloc” based on a transatlantic partnership with North America. Emmanuel Macron is known to be keen on the idea of a pan-European army, and the French President set alarm bells ringing last month when he said: “The issue is not for Europeans to know whether they must defend themselves with or without Washington.

“Why are they not ready to make defence a budget priority and make the necessary sacrifices, even as the risks are growing?”

Mr Kawczynski, a committed Brexiteer who has frequently voiced his concerns on the subject, told Express.co.uk: “We are moving heavily towards the creation of a supra-national state, single currency, a single EU army, a single foreign policy, a single central bank and all the rest of it.

“The United Kingdom is going to form an alternative bloc with the transatlantic partnership and America and Canada based on a common commitment to NATO and free trade.

“I think the United Kingdom needs to work hand in glove with USA and Canada to protect the NATO alliance to take us away from this crazy, maniacal idea of creating a single European army.

“I am exactly as old as the UK’s European Union membership – I was born on the day we joined.

“In my lifetime I have known nothing else so what we have experienced in the United Kingdom is a constant effort to take all power away from all sovereign nations and making it more and more difficult for individual countries to be able to make decisions for themselves.

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“The European Union has been an artificial straitjacket which has prevented us from clearly analysing British geostrategic interests on the continent of Europe, and it’s much more complex than some people think it is.”

Mr Kawczynski highlighted the issue of the Nordstream pipeline between Germany and Russia as an example of a conflict of interest involving one of the EU’s most powerful countries.

He explained: “Germany is implementing in my view of the most dangerous things imaginable for the stability and cohesion of NATO, probably of the last 30 years.

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“The European Union has been an artificial straitjacket which has prevented us from clearly analysing British geostrategic interests on the continent of Europe, and it’s much more complex than some people think it is.”

Mr Kawczynski highlighted the issue of the Nordstream pipeline between Germany and Russia as an example of a conflict of interest involving one of the EU’s most powerful countries.

He explained: “Germany is implementing in my view of the most dangerous things imaginable for the stability and cohesion of NATO, probably of the last 30 years.

“They are building this multi-billion pound huge undersea pipeline going directly to Russia and bypassing our fellow NATO partners.

“Why are British soldiers on an occasional basis in eastern Poland putting their lives on the line while Germany is building a pipeline and giving Russia what it desperately needs which is hard currency?

“President Trump did a brilliant thing in challenging the secretary-general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.

“He said: ‘Why am I paying hundreds of millions of dollars to safeguard Europe when the Germans are giving money to the Russians?”

Mr Macron is not the only European leader to hint at the possibility of a European military force.

Speaking in Berlin in November, incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We must go our own European way with confidence.

“Soft power alone won’t suffice today if we Europeans want to assert ourselves in the world.

“Europe must also learn the language of power.”

In what could be interpreted as an assessment of the bloc’s future relationship with NATO, she added: “That means, on the one hand, developing our own muscles – where for a long time we could lean on others, for example in security policy.”

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