The NHS

Brexit will mean less money for NHS

Nearly all economists (including the Bank of England) say we will be poorer after Brexit and so we are not going to get the extra £350 million a week for the NHS that we were promised.

Even Nigel Farage said he could not guarantee we would get that money.

How will we fund the NHS with less money?

We need EU people to work in NHS

63,000 people from the EU currently work in the NHS.

But the NHS is still short of around 42,000 nurses and 11,500 doctors.

What has been your experience using the NHS? What would we do without the doctors and nurses from the EU?

We rely on EU for medicine

The UK imports 45 million packs of medicine each month from the EU. Some medicine don’t keep for long so we need them to get here quickly and regularly.

This process relies on the agreements and shared regulation of the Single Market to keep running smoothly.

Do you know anyone who relies on regular medicines? If we leave the EU how can we be sure that the medicines will continue to arrive as we need them?

UK Borders

The Irish border

The EU’s Customs Union & Single Market have removed the need for checks to ensure the quality of goods on the Irish border because, as members, the UK and Ireland have the same agreed standards for products & services. But if the UK leaves the Single Market, the EU can no longer be sure that goods imported into Ireland from UK are of a suitable standard. For example, the EU do not allow chlorinated chicken but the US do. This means there would have to be some kind of check on the quality of products between Ireland and the UK. And that breaks the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the foundations of peace in Ireland.

Are you worried about Brexit causing problems on the Irish Border?

We can control immigration from EU

EU law states that people from the EU must either have a job (or enough money to not be a burden on the UK’s public services) and have medical insurance to be allowed to come and live in the UK.

The UK can impose this EU law, if we want. But how many people from the EU do you think are coming to the UK and not contributing to society?

We control immigration from countries outside the EU

The UK is in complete control of immigration from countries outside the EU. No-one has the right to live in the UK from countries outside of the EU unless they are granted a Visa from the UK Government.

The EU has no control over UK Government’s immigration policy for the rest of the world.

Do you feel that the EU controls the UK borders?

UK Economy

Brexit has already cost billions

The Bank of England said that by May 2018 Brexit had already cost the UK £40 billion. That is around £900 per home.

How much more will we lose? How would you have spent that money?

Brexit will make us much poorer in the long term

The Government estimates that the UK economy will be between 3.9% to 9.3% poorer over next 15 years if we go ahead with Brexit.

A loss of 3.9% a year would make the UK around £100 billion a year poorer by the 2030s.

The Government had to be forced into publishing these figures.

Imagine if we didn’t have to do this. How would you like the government to spend the extra money we’d have from a stronger economy?

EU immigrants give more than they take

Immigrants from the EU contribute around £2,300 more to the UK than the average UK citizen.

Not only do people who come here from the EU fund our public services, their taxes help pay for our public services.

The EU has free trade deals with over 70 countries

Through our membership of the EU, the UK has around 40 free trade agreements with over 70 countries who are outside of the EU.

This is why fruits from Peru & South Africa are cheap for us to buy.

If we leave the EU, we will lose these free trade agreements and will have to start negotiating ourselves, we may not get as good a deal as the EU and these negotiations can take a long time - for example the EU’s deal with Canada took 7 years to agree.

Do you think we will get a better trade deal with Japan as part of the EU or if we are on our own?

The single market gives us 500 million extra customers

As a member of the EU’s Single Market, we have free trade deals with all 27 EU countries. That is over 500 million customers. If we leave the Single Market, we will lose these agreements and will have to start negotiating with the EU again.

500 million customers on our doorstep. Surely we should be trying to do more trade with them, not make it harder?

UK Industries

UK Construction

There is a huge shortage of bricklayers, carpenters & plumbers in the UK. This shortage would be even worse without the 165,000 people from the EU currently working in UK construction.

This shortage means that wages in the construction industry keep going up to try to attract employees. Over 60% of small to medium sized construction companies expect to increase wages in the next 6 months.

What is your experience of finding a well paid job in the construction industry?

UK Farming

Most of the farm produce grown in the UK is picked by workers from the EU. 75% is picked by Romanians and Bulgarians alone.

According to the National Farmers Association, the number of seasonal workers coming to work on British farms has dropped 17% as a result of the uncertainty of Brexit.

Who will pick our fruit and veg if EU workers stop coming to the UK?

UK Hospitality

Over 40% of the workers in restaurants, hotels and pubs are from the EU.

Who will do these jobs if they leave or stop coming?

UK Housing

We need to build more houses to make homes affordable.

Over 60% of small and medium sized construction firms are struggling to hire the bricklayers and carpenters they need even though 165,000 people from the EU work in UK construction.

If the EU builders leave or stop coming how will we build the houses we need? What is your experience of finding good, affordable housing?

UK Science & Research

83% of the UK’s scientific researchers want to Remain in the EU. With 78% saying that departure from the EU would be harmful to scientific research in the UK.

Do you think Nigel Farage knows more about what is best for science or the actual scientists?

UK Sovereignty

The EU does not set UK taxes

The EU does not have a direct role in raising taxes or setting tax rates, and has no say in how countries spend their tax revenues.

However, the EU does oversee some tax rules, e.g. minimum rates on VAT, taxes on petrol, tobacco and alcohol, which we already comply with. Any changes to these EU rules require unanimous approval, so the UK would effectively have a veto.

If there was a general election tomorrow, which political party do you think would have the best policies for raising and spending taxes?

The Single Market has little impact on UK sovereignty

The Single Market simply makes trade between businesses inside the EU easy by having just one set of standards for everyone to use.

For example, we know the toasters produced in the UK, Germany or France meet the same safety checks so we don’t need to inspect them when they are imported or exported. This keeps us all safe and makes it much easier and cheaper to do business in Europe.

And we can still make toasters of a higher standard if we want.

What do you think about the Single Market? What would happen if we didn’t have agreed standards in place?

The UK can stop countries from joining the EU

Before the referendum in 2016, claims were being shared that Turkey was about to join the EU, and the UK would have no say in the matter.

Any state joining the EU requires unanimous approval of all the existing member states.

As long as the UK is in the EU, other countries can only join with our approval.

The UK does not have to adopt the Euro

The UK (like Denmark) has an opt-out which means we don’t have to join the Euro. And the EU can not force us to change this.

This an example of where we have more control than most other EU countries.

The UK does not have to join an EU army

Article 42 of the Lisbon Treaty states that a “common defense” (an EU army) would require unanimous approval from EU member states, and in UK law this can’t happen without a referendum. So as long as we’re in the EU, not only would we not have to join, we can prevent it happening altogether.

Once we leave the EU we get no say in whether or not an EU army is formed. How does that make us safer?

The UK helps to decide what the EU does

As members of the EU we play a part in deciding what all the EU countries will do in the future. We can suggest ways of improving the EU, vote on policies and veto big changes we don’t like.

As members of the EU we can play a leading role in deciding what the EU should do in the future. How would you like to change the EU?