The North East is a net beneficiary of EU grants and subsidies, helping to train our young people for work, fund small businesses, our universities and agriculture, helping our economy grow. Even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said on Monday, leaving the EU would put the Northern Powerhouse at risk.
Between now and 2020 the North East is destined to receive £800 million from European funding. But now, the Leave campaign has said they’ll pick up the tab if the UK votes out on June 23rd. Don’t listen to them. They can’t do it. It’s the biggest con ever.
First of all they aren’t the government. Secondly, they’re committed to spending the money we contribute to the EU many times over already. And thirdly, people who are making these commitments are Conservative politicians who for years said we haven’t got the money, but suddenly they’ve discovered a magic money tree. Like all things to do with magic its an illusion. Don’t fall for it. It is what it is, an illusion.
The Leave campaign is spraying spending commitments around as if there is no tomorrow. An independent analysis has looked at what they’ve promised and come up with the figures involved.
The Leave campaign has committed to building more hospitals, providing more school places, more spending on science, regional airports, improving railways, more housing, more this, more that and the list goes on.
The cost is over £100 billion. £100 billion they don’t have. So now we know: as of today, we can honestly say the campaigners for those who want to leave the EU are perpetrating the biggest con trick ever on the North East.
Don”t be conned by the Leave campaign’s fantasy economics. I must admit I fear for the future of our region, where I have lived all my life, if we vote to Leave the EU. Over 50% of what we export from the North East goes to Europe providing 100,000 jobs. Those two facts alone should make you think twice about leaving. And if you think twice and uncertainty sets in don’t do it. Don’t be conned into believing a land of milk and honey awaits us on June 24th, the day after the referendum, because it doesn’t.
And finally, can you really believe the Leavers like Ian Duncan Smith, who gave us the bedroom tax and food banks, and Michael Gove, who has said the NHS needs to be dismantled, have the best interests of the North East at heart? I don’t believe they do. They are very well-off people who will stay well-off whether we vote to Remain or Leave.
Phil Wilson M.P.