WHY I’M VOTING TO LEAVE
E COULD do even better if we shook off the remaining Brussels fetters. The EU imposes uncontrolled migration from Europe. It stops us negotiating the free trade with the world that would bring new jobs and prosperity. Its unelected officials crank out six in 10 of our laws.
Then they charge us an eyewatering membership fee of £350million a week. After the British people vote to leave and take back control, we will get back all that money to spend on our priorities such as the NHS and cutting VAT on energy bills for pensioners – which the EU, you won’t be surprised to know, forbids us from doing.
By taking back control of our borders we can finally get a grip on migration from Europe. In 2015, 270,000 people came to Britain from the EU, that is like adding a city the size of Newcastle every year. Reducing the number of migrants will make life easier for young people struggling to get on the housing ladder. Less immigration will help people on the lowest incomes the most. They are the ones who are hit hardest when companies bring in cheap labour from Europe. The alternative, to stay in the EU, means having no chance of controlling numbers.
It is likely to get worse, with nearly 90 million people from Turkey and four Balkan countries being lined up for EU membership and free movement. That will bring competition for jobs and pressures on hospitals, schools and housing that we can only guess at. I’m pro immigration but it has to be controlled and it must be done with the consent of the British people.
Like many others, I was optimistic the Prime Minister would win a good deal in his renegotiation with Brussels. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. If we stay, the EU will be after extra cash from us, not least to bail out the euro. We beg to give them less, they demand we hand over more. It would baffle Oliver Twist.
We should remain good friends and neighbours and carry on trading as before with our European friends. But for Britain, the EU has had its chance and it has had its day.
The Remain camp will not get away with running Britain down by saying we can’t manage our own country. I believe Britain will have the confidence to take back control and Vote Leave tomorrow.
IN 1973 WHEN THIS COUNTRY
WHEN Edward Heath took Britain into the EEC at the start of 1973 our country was at a low ebb. We were known as “the sick man of Europe”.
Whereas mainland western Europe had recovered quickly after the Second World War – partly thanks to large dollops of US Marshall Aid – British industry struggled, marred by weak and ineffectual management, under-investment and over-mighty trade union leaders ready to call out workforces on the slightest pretext. The era brought a series of body-blows to Britain, some