STAY OR GO?: Lancashire vote finely balanced ahead of EU referendum

Latest polls show the county’s voters are split down the middle on whether to stay or go. One leading academic claims things are so close in Lancashire that county is set to be Britain’s “bellweather” region, indicating how the rest of the country will vote.

Remain campaigners say 435,000 jobs in the North West depend on trade with the European Union, while supporters of Leave claim it is time to take back control of our own affairs.

Today we look at the arguments from both sides.

REMAIN

RIBBLE Valley councillor Ken Hind, former MP for West Lancashire, wants to say cheers to a Remain vote.

He has been out on the campaign trail and is pictured enjoying an “In” pint in a Waddington pub where two Bowland Brewery beers were on offer in a fun poll, with “Vote In” and “Vote Out” ales on sale at the bar.

He believes that Britain is better in and said: “In the North West 435,000 jobs depend directly or indirectly on trade with the EU.”

Not only that, he says £229m of EU structural and investment funding payments will amount to £182 per county resident between 2014 and 2020 – the kind of regional funding which would not be guaranteed if we left the EU.

The Ribble Valley councillor says if jobs are lost, Britain will just end up with a bigger state benefits bill and less tax will be paid, so wiping out any Brexit bonus.

Coun Hind points out that the rural sector has received “substantial funding” from Europe. With an armoury of facts and figures, Ken has been fighting his corner and has listed some 72 projects which benefited from the £72.5m allocated to the county in structural and investment funding between 2007 and 2013 and says ”that’s only some of them – and that excludes the centre of Blackburn and the M65.”

MAJOR local employer BAE Systems has made only one official comment on the referendum. It is: “As a company we believe the UK should remain a leading member of the European Union. Remaining within a reformed European Union provides greater stability and certainty for UK business.”

Local businesses which supply BAE will also feel the effect if orders drop with thousands of people working indirectly for aerospace industries in the region.

LANCASHIRE’S universities fear what an exit vote might mean for their students and research.

Professor Mike Thomas, vice-chancellor at UCLan, where 686 EU students from outside Britain study as well as 2,800 international non-EU students, says a “Stay” vote is essential to enable Britain to remain competitive in the “global knowledge economy” and to collaborate with partners across the EU and to carry out cutting edge research.

UCLan successfully secured and claimed more than £10m from the last European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding round.

Professor Thomas said: “Alongside over 100 other university leaders I am a wholehearted supporter of the ‘In’ campaign with regards to EU membership. In my view, and in the collective view of the vast majority of universities, EU membership is essential if we are to compete in the future global knowledge economy.

“For instance, EU students spend £2.27bn in the UK, creating 19,000. jobs. In short, what’s good for universities is good for business.”

FOR Tony Attard, the chairman of Marketing Lancashire and owner of textiles company Panaz, there is only one way forward.

Mr Attard is passionately pro-Europe. Citing the fact that 52 per cent of North West goods are sold in Europe, he believes exit would be damaging for the county and the country.

Calling for a “duty of care” to ensure information given to the electorate is accurate, he says in the debate about net costs of EU membership nothing has been mentioned about the revenue brought into Britain by that membership.

As for what he calls “myths of red tape,” he argues the current trading and legal arrangements allow trading to proceed within Europe without obstacles and give access to a market for higher tech goods and some 500 million potential customers.

“It’s much harder to sell to China and India. Europe’s economy is very different,” he says. He warns markets are not as developed outside Europe for some higher tech products, while EU countries are the biggest inward investors in the UK.

Financially he predicts huge pressures on the UK economy if Leave wins. “I would expect interest rates to go up because of pressure on the pound. One suggestion is the pound will go down by 20 per cent.”

Safety and combating terrorism is another issue he is passionate about, noting: “All of our NATO allies want us to stay in Europe and there’s a reason for that – we have an influence. If we move away from that influence we wouldn’t be privy to things that are discovered.”

He continued: “Britain’s multiculturalism is one of its strengths. Rather than taking from the NHS they (immigrants) are adding to taxes which are actually funding the NHS and pensions.”

PETER Rabbitts, retired former ACAS conciliation service worker from Ribchester, t