The reasons Brexit will damage us – campaign
WITH fewer than 200 days to go before the UK is set to leave the European Union, a new campaign is highlighting the reasons why a hard or “no deal” Brexit will be damaging for Wales –and wants people to add the reason most important to them.
The new Wales For Europe website – walesforeurope.org – already features more than 100 reasons exploring the negative impact the campaigners believe Brexit will have on Wales and the rest of the UK.
Ideas submitted already range from Wales’ industries, farms and fisheries to world-leading research, education and the Welsh language.
People are being asked to submit their own #NotMyBrexit reason, helping add to the growing evidence against leaving the EU and driving momentum towards a People’s Vote.
Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, said: “Leaving the EU will have grave consequences for families, businesses and farmers across the country – consequences that will affect each person in different ways. I hope as many as possible will contribute and add their reasons to the growing body of evidence against Brexit.”
The UK Parliament will face a crucial vote on Brexit in October or November. To encourage people to share their voices, the site also offers a quick and easy way for people to send a message to their local MP urging them to put their support behind a People’s Vote when the opportunity comes.
Reasons listed on the website so far include:
■ Brexit threatens 200,000 exportrelated jobs in Wales
■ Welsh port towns likely to see job losses under Brexit
■ Brexit means stockpiling food and medicine
■ Welsh fishing exports will crumble under Brexit
■ Wales could lose out on huge amounts of funding
■ The Brexit referendum was swayed by cheating Leave campaign
■ UK worse off in every Brexit scenario
■ UK government at mercy of Jacob Rees-Mogg and other extremist Brexiteers
■ Post-Brexit UK will become a nation of rule-takers, not rule-makers
■ Swansea’s state-of-the-art Bay Campus was only possible thanks to EU support
■ UK universities will suffer if borders are closed to talented minds
■ Brexit puts £5bn Welsh aerospace industry at risk
■ Welsh language at risk without rural funding from EU
■ Brexit will put an end to funding for equality and anti-poverty campaigns
■ Brexit’s tough migration rules will put even more strain on the NHS
■ The new blue passports will cost £260m
■ ‘No-deal Brexit’ will leave Welsh economy £1.1bn worse off every year
■ Restricted free movement puts many UK industries at risk
■ We’ll lose the right to live, work and retire in over 30 countries
■ No more diplomatic protection as an EU citizen
■ Visiting the continent will be riskier without European health insurance
■ 61% of Wales’ exports face uncertainty under Brexit
■ Wales will lose its power to influence important trade deals
■ Despite Leave campaign’s immigration claims, only 6.3% of people in Wales were born outside the UK
■ Barriers to Welsh and European higher education collaboration is already being formed
■ Brexit puts UK under the control of bullying Trump
■ Brexit undermines the EU’s central aim of preserving peace and liberty
■ Leaving the EU means opting out of fundamental human rights framework
■ UK economy will suffer without access to Europe’s $16.6tn single market
■ Brexit jeopardises trade deals with 50 countries around the world
■ The UK has become the slowestgrowing country in G7
■ UK farming standards will drop significantly without EU support
■ Thousands of Welsh Airbus jobs are at risk
■ The claim that millions of Turks would flock to the UK is racist scaremongering
■ Scotland and Northern Ireland are being dragged out of EU against their will
■ Leaving the EU Single Market puts our economy at risk
■ The Irish border conundrum
■ Critical trade deals will not be in place by exit day
■ We’ll lose vital advocacy for disabled people
■ Blind people will lose out on accessible TV set-top boxes
■ Thanks to EU rules, Welsh beaches are beautiful and clean
■ Millions in EU funding for Welsh further education now at risk
■ Leaving the EU is not the only way to trade with Australia and New Zealand
■ UK will miss out on EU partnerships with 79 countries
■ Brexit will put up trade barriers back up
■ Holidaymakers under EU rules
■ The EU Customs Union protects us and the environment
■ EU helps fight fraud, drugs and terrorism
■ €6.6m worth of trade conducted every minute in Europe
■ The UK and the rest of the EU intercept 299 tonnes of illegal drugs every year
■ The EU Customs Union seizes millions of illegal ammunition every year
■ Without the European Arrest Warrant, the UK could be responsible for foreign criminals for longer
■ EU support helped transfer more than 10,000 foreign criminals out of the UK since 2004
■ Welsh businesses face higher tariff barriers under Brexit
■ Farming trade deals with the US and Australia will take years
■ UK women’s rights were strengthened by the EU, now they face uncertainty are protected