Here are the FACTS about the UK in the EU
As a former Defence Minister, I believe that our security, defence and industry are best protected by taking an independent position outside the EU.
We will continue to make cars in the East Midlands if Britain were to leave the EU. We want to deepen our roots in the UK.
We have to end EU visa discrimination against our Commonwealth Citizens. It’s a matter of justice.
I’m very impressed by . . . a very good Labour Leave campaign in Scotland. I will campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
OVERVIEW
The UK gives Brussels £50m every day. £350m every week. £19bn every year. We get less than half back, but Brussels stops us spending on our priorities in jobs, manufacturing, energy, transport, regeneration, agriculture and fisheries. And every year Brussels takes more powers away from us.
As UK exports decline to the EU and soar to the rest of the world, we must look seriously at the price we are paying to be members of a declining club that wants more powers to dictate our future.
The UK will be far better off freed from undemocratic Brussels rule.
ANIMAL WELFARE
The drive to improve the conditions that animals are reared in has been undermined by lax enforcement and blatant non-compliance.
The EU has put animal welfare and UK farmers into second place. Other EU nations are not adhering to legislation. This compromises the welfare of animals, the livelihoods of our farmers and the health of consumers.
From Horse Passports to the Pet Travel Scheme, lax EU enforcement puts us all at risk.
The UK banned sow stalls in 1999, but 17 EU countries continued to use them. The British Pig Executive estimated that over 70% of imported pork and pork products were produced in conditions that would be illegal in the UK.
Compassion in World Farming found animals held at borders in inhumane conditions for days. Over 3 million cattle, sheep and pigs have been exported to non-EU countries, many in disgraceful conditions.
The UK ban on intensive battery cages was ignored by other EU states.
The lack of transparency in labelling means that consumers are being deceived.
All these abuses increase the pressure to use factory farming methods.
COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY
EU Agriculture produces just 1.6% of the EU output, employs fewer than 5.5% of the population, but Brussels gives the CAP 40% of the entire EU budget. Import controls and red tape add £7 a week to our food bills.
The UK Parliament has very little say on what Brussels gives to our farmers.
The Common Agricultural Policy costs British taxpayers £5bn a year BUT UK farmers get back less than £3bn a year.
The CAP adds £361 a year to the average family of four’s food bill because of import restrictions from non-EU countries and arti cally high prices.
Leaving the EU will cut the cost of our weekly shop by £7 – ‘reform’ has achieved nothing
The CAP gets £43 billion every year – 40% of the entire EU budget. This is after 54 years of so-called ‘reform’.
We are sick of hearing promises to reform CAP.
This £43bn EU subsidy to agriculture is a larger sum than the entire GDP of each of 123 countries out of 193 countries in the United Nations ike Bulgaria or Uganda.
The immoral CAP drives farmers in developing countries into poverty through EU dumping and tariff barriers.
The WTO slammed Brussels for operating an illegal £1.3bn sugar regime to undercut African farmers spreading poverty and misery to the poorest countries.
We want to take back control over agriculture and fishing.
COMMON FISHERIES POLICY
60% of fish consumed in the EU have to be exported from outside the EU. Gross mismanagement of EU fishing policy has all-but-destroyed our once-thriving fishing industry. We need to take back control.
In 1972 Brussels estimated the UK owned 4/5ths of the Europe’s fishing stocks. Since we joined the EEC, the number of jobs in fishing has halved.
Catches from the North Sea have dropped by 2/3rds in the past twenty years.
Cod stocks have declined by 70% in the past ten years.
Today 75% of EU fishing stocks are overfished.
It is time to take back control of our territorial waters and devolve this to local communities. Let’s reverse 44 years of EU failure. Iceland whose territorial waters are one ninth the size of the UKs, has overtaken the UK fishing catch thanks to Brussels. The CFP created mass unemployment in fishing communities and costs us £2.8bn.
COSTS – HOW MUCH THE EU COSTS US
The UK gives Brussels £50m every day. £350m every week. £19bn every year. We get less than half back, but Brussels stops us spending on OUR priorities in manufacturing, energy, regeneration, agriculture or fisheries.
In January, the EU was exposed for wasting over £11n in Aid money because of incompetence and fraud. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.
DUMPING
Brussels is letting cheap steel and other products be dumped here. And while Brussels sucks £19 billion out of the UK every year, it ties one hand of UK business behind its back.
We’ll stop countries dumping steel and other products on our markets.
EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS
The EU is putting UK jobs at risk.
The EU’s free movement of Labour rules are exploiting UK workers, allowing unscrupulous employers to import cheap labour.
The EU threatens workers’ rights by promoting zero hours contracts and suspending free collective bargaining in Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Romania as a ‘bail-out’ condition.
It offers no protection against unfair dumping of steel and other products on our market, costing us thousands of highly skilled jobs.
INVESTMENT IN THE UK
The strong UK economy and a skilled workforce attract international companies to invest here – not our membership of the EU.
The Head of the world’s biggest car maker, Toyota has pledged to keep building cars here when we vote to leave the EU.
In fact the UK’s exports to the EU have fallen steadily for over 20 years, from 51% to 43% and dropping. Investment is now going into expanding sales of UK goods and services to the new powerhouse economies.
But Brussels sucks £19 billion out of the UK every year and ties one hand of UK business behind its back. And it lets countries outside the EU dump steel and other products on our markets.
JOBS
5 million EU jobs depend on exporting to the UK – £62bn more comes to the UK than we export to the EU.
The UK has a £62bn export DEFICIT with the EU.
The UK has a £27bn export SURPLUS with the rest of the world.
2 million MORE jobs within other EU countries depend on their exports to us, than is created by our exports to the EU. The last thing they can afford is to impose trade tariffs or a trade war.
OVERSEAS AID
The UK is one of the most generous donors to countries in need.
The immoral CAP drives farmers in developing countries into poverty through EU dumping and tariff barriers.
The WTO slammed Brussels for operating an illegal £1.3bn sugar regime to undercut African farmers spreading poverty and misery to the poorest countries.
In January, the EU was exposed for wasting over £11 billion in Aid money because of incompetence and fraud. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.
Northern Ireland
The Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s statement at 10 Downing Street that a brexit will disrupt the Northern Irish peace process has been condemned across the politiucal spectum as a highly irresponsible and desperate statement. The Irish PM’s outburst is a terrible example of playing politics with people’s lives.
NORWAY
Because the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world, (and Norway isn’t in the top 20) Labour LEAVE believes the UK should take a different route outside the EU. Nevertheless, the people of Norway overwhelmingly voted against joining the EU because the Norwegian Parliament decides how much it contributes to the EU and what their EU contribution is spent on. Don’t believe the “IN-at-any-cost” Campaign’s claims about Norway. No-one in Norway is banging on the door Brussels begging to be let in!
SECURITY
The UK’s security is best protected by us having our seat on the UN Security Council, and remaining members of NATO, Interpol, OSCE and the OECD – not being tied to the coat tails of Brussels.
TAX DODGING MULTINATIONALS
Tax dodging multinationals are running rings round Brussels.
McDonald’s, Starbucks and Amazon do the bulk of their business in the UK, but EU has allowed Luxembourg to become the tax-haven of choice for tax- dodging multinationals.
The European Court of Justice enforces the rights of EU states as tax havens.
It outlaws attempts by the UK to crack down on these tax cheats.
And the architect of Luxembourg’s tax-cheat regime was their Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker – now the President of the European Commission.
After we leave the EU, we’ll be free to levy a fair tax on companies that are making hundreds of millions here in the UK.
TRADE
The head of the ‘IN-at-all-cost” Campaign, Lord Stuart Rose is WRONG to claim that 50% of our exports are with the EU. His figure is 24 years out of date! Today, 57% of our exports are outside the EU, and the figure is climbing. The “REMAIN” case is so weak, and the 53%-£47% Opinion Poll lead LEAVE has, means they have to make up the figures is a desperate attempt to stop their support haemorrhaging.
For every £3 we export to the EU, they export £5 to us – so they can’t afford a tariff war. Far less than 50% of our exports now go to the EU. Since 1992 when 51% of UK exports went to the EU, our proportion of exports to the EU has been dropping – to 43% now, an still falling. Our exports to the rest of the world now total £57%.
EU exports to the UK are worth a staggering £62bn more than our exports to them.
Our latest trade surplus outside the EU is £27bn.
But EU countries have 5 million workers who depend on us buying their goods, including 1 million German jobs and 450,000 French jobs. That’s why our 3 million jobs in EU exports are safe.
The EU can’t afford a trade war can’t afford a trade war or to impose tarrifs.
5 million jobs in the E.U depend on them sending exports to us.
But the real growth area has been outside the EU, where our exports are at record levels.
TTIP – THE TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP
TTIP threatens the NHS, railways, food, environmental safety and banking regulations, opening up public services to US corporations.
John Mills
Founder
Founder Labour LEAVE, former Labour Councillor
"42 years of reform have produced a wasteful, undemocratic bureaucracy sucking the life-blood from our economy.”
Kate Hoey
Founder
Founder, Labour MP Vuaxhall. Former Home Office Minister
“Staying in the EU is costing us jobs – not leaving it. We have a global market at our feet if we can free ourselves from Brussels.”
Khalid Mahmood
Co-Chair
MP for Birmingham
"We must end discrimination against Commonwealth citizens by EU laws."
Jane Doonan
Unison Branch Secretary
"As a trade union activist, I shudder to think what impact the EU/USA TTIP will have on public enterprises.”
To protect our jobs, our manufacturers, our farmers and our fishing communities we have to take back control from undemocratic Brussels rule.
Your help is vital. Sign-up!
The UK gives Brussels £50m every DAY
But our Parliament is not allowed to decide how best to support our communities and key sectors like manufacturing, farming and fishing.
Brussels has failed to secure animal welfare.
Brussels supports zero hours contracts and has let unscrupulous employers
Import cheap labour and force down UK wage rates.