EU Membership: Economic Benefits

Steve Double Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

I feel a bit of a lone voice because I am going to speak in favour of voting to leave next week. It is very important for me to do so because I believe that Labour Members’ comments about a Tory Brexit betray the fact that they are not listening to the British people. The vote next week will quite clearly be very close, but at least half of the British people have had enough of the EU and want to leave. By calling this a Tory Brexit, Labour Members are just not listening to the many millions of British people who have genuine concerns about our current relationship with the EU.

This debate, however, is about the supposed economic benefits of our membership of the EU. I will address one very specific point in that regard. According to the House of Commons Library, in 2016 Britain is forecast to give £20.5 billion gross and £11.2 billion net to the EU, so we will be getting back some money from that £20 billion. No one can deny that that will be a large sum of money, and there are various opinions about how it could be spent, but only if we leave will we get to decide how it can be apportioned.

Part of the money we get back from the EU comes in the form of economic development aid. The constituency in Cornwall that I have the privilege of representing is one of the areas in England that benefits the most from that aid. Over the past decades, Cornwall has received hundreds of millions of pounds in regional growth funding from the EU.

[Mrs Sheryll Murray]

I believe Cornwall has been getting around £65 million a year since 2001.

[Steve Double]

I thank my hon. Friend for that—I was about to make the point that over the past 10 years or so Cornwall has received around £600 million in economic development aid. But we need to remember that that is not EU money. The EU does not actually have any money—there is no magic EU money tree. It is our money, which we give to the EU. It converts it into euros, then converts that into sterling to give back to us, except that it gives it back with a whole load of strings, bureaucracy and red tape attached about how we can spend it.

The fact is that that money is not working. It was meant to create 10,000 new jobs in Cornwall. In fact, in the past 10 years or so, it has created around a third of that number. That Cornwall has now qualified for a third round of EU funding demonstrates that the funding is failing. It is not lifting the Cornish economy as intended. It is not raising wages or the standard of living in the way it was designed to.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

rose—

[Steve Double]

I will not take any more interventions, I am afraid.

There is a very simple reason for that failure. We are not able to spend the aid on what we need to in Cornwall. How we should spend it is dictated, Big Brother fashion, by the EU. The requirements are designed for a Europe-wide programme that does not fit the Cornish economy. I will give an example. The current round of funding is targeted only at supporting and providing facilities for small and medium-sized enterprises. But Cornwall does not need another load of SMEs. We need big companies to come and invest in Cornwall, to create better-paid jobs and provide career opportunities for our young people. That is what Cornwall desperately needs.

Just this week, business leaders told me that there were two projects on the table and ready to go. One was from a large company that wants to invest in Cornwall and create jobs, and the other was from a manufacturing company in Cornwall that is ready to expand, producing lots more jobs. Both need European regional development fund support but do not qualify for the current round because they are not SMEs. The EU is giving us back our own money but telling us we cannot spend it on what we need and want to spend it on in Cornwall.

I do not know whether any other Members recognise this situation, but I get quite wound up when I see that wonderful blue plaque saying, “Funded by the European Union”. Every time I see one, I think, “No, that was funded by British taxpayers’ money that you have recycled and given back to us then told us how to spend.”

We are often told we should vote remain because of all the economic support we get from the EU. Well, from a Cornish point of view, it is not working. Our own money is recycled, but how it can be spent is dictated to us. I contend that we would be far better off keeping that money ourselves in the first place and having the British Government decide how we can support our regional economies.

The theme of this debate has been the risk of leaving against the certainty of remaining. I say that there are quite clearly risks in remaining. No one knows what the future of the EU will be. The eurozone crisis has not gone away, but has just been kicked into the long grass, and the migration crisis will continue to be a major issue in the EU. There is no certainty. The vote is not between the status quo and leaving. We are voting on whether to remain, and there are many, many risks in a remain vote. Let us be honest with the people of this country that there are risks on both sides. I will certainly be voting next week to leave.

[Several hon. Members rose—]