EU Membership: Economic Benefits

Rebecca Pow Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) (Con)]

I am pleased to follow the impassioned words of the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting).

I want to start my speech in this historic debate by asking a question: have we been prosperous for the last 40 years? Yes, we certainly have. We have become the fifth greatest economy in the world, and that is while being part of the European Union, and not despite being part of it. Our economy has grown by 65% during that time. That time has also been peaceful, as my hon. Friends the Members for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat) and for Portsmouth South (Mrs Drummond) said, and we should not forget that.

The EU is by no means perfect—there is much that I personally do not like—but on economic grounds there is an overwhelming reason to remain within it. That is the overwhelming consensus when I talk to businesses in my constituency. I will mention a few companies I have visited that all say that we are better off in. Pritex in Wellington manufactures sound-proofing for the car industry. The chief executive heads up the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and he has categorically stressed that the car industry operates totally EU-wide; it is a £15 billion trade for the UK, so we need to remain in the EU. W. H. Hendy and Sons makes high-pressure water pumps in Wiveliscombe. That is in a rural area, but the company exports right across the EU. It goes with delegations to get contracts in other parts of the world, and it could not do that alone, so it needs us to be in Europe. That is critical for rural jobs in my constituency, which we must not put in jeopardy.

Ministry of Cake, based in Taunton, is a £30 million business employing 300 people and the largest dessert maker in the EU. You have probably eaten some of its cakes, Madam Deputy Speaker, as it supplies coffee chains here and right across the EU. The managing director says that his UK bestseller is chocolate fudge cake, but the market in the UK is saturated, so he now needs to get 25% of his trade from the EU. He therefore needs us to stay in, because it is the best place to get trade from. We share E numbers, standards and clear labelling, and we have a free market, and he has access to all the labour in that market. He could not operate without the migrant labour force in Taunton. Nor could another great business in Wellington—K. S. Coles, the vegetable packers, run by Ken Coles. He employs 70 labourers in the winter, mostly migrants, and hundreds more in the summer, to pick beans, peas and strawberries. I do not know whether you like mashed swede, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I do. The company is not only the largest supplier of swedes to our supermarkets in this country but the second largest supplier of swedes to Germany, so it exports right across the EU and needs us to stay in for the sake of that trade.

On all those grounds, we need to remain within the EU. It is a no-brainer. As we have heard, we already have the best possible deal. We have no euro, we have free trade, we have 300 million people we can access, we have a rebate, and we have a veto on laws. What more could we want?

The subjects of agriculture and the environment are close to my heart and important in my rural constituency. The CAP is vital to our agricultural industry. The £20 billion of funding that the industry gets to keep the environment in good shape is absolutely priceless. It not only keeps the rural economy going but keeps people on the land and gives us low-priced food. If we leave the EU, the price of food will rise, mark my words. We have high welfare standards that we have to keep to, so our food will be expensive to produce and we will be flooded with cheap food from Europe. Our farmers therefore need us to stay in.

On the environment, birds do not stop at the boundaries of countries, and we share the water and the air, so we are much better off within the EU. The framework of EU legislation made us clean up our beaches and water. Our beaches, in particular, are vital for our tourist industry in the south-west. There is a direct spin-off between the environmental benefits of being in Europe and the economic benefits, both of which are absolutely clear.

The EU is not perfect, but let us be at the table fighting to improve it, especially through our presidency. Let us be sure that there is some of that chocolate fudge cake at the EU table.