I was asked to write a piece for a website for the Polish community in Peterborough, as a rebuttal to claims made in the UKIP European election freepost leaflet.

The translated piece in Polish can be found in full here. Here is my original text in English:

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A rebuttal to the UKIP freepost leaflet for the 2014 European Elections
by Chris Wiggin, Liberal Democrat candidate for Orton with Hampton

Immigration

Liberal Democrats recognise the benefits immigration brings to the UK. We reject the notion that EU migrants are a drain on the UK public finances – a recent study by University College London found that European Economic Area (EEA – the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) had made a positive contribution in the decade up to 2011, contributing 34% more in taxes than they received in benefits and services.

At our recent conference, Liberal Democrats passed a new immigration policy in which we addressed some of the issues with immigration in Britain. Integration is important, and communities need help to cope with population changes. If migration is going to work for Britain it must work for British people too. That is why we would double the number of minimum wage checks, to stop wages being undercut, and set up a £1bn Community Protection Fund to relieve pressure on local housing, schools and healthcare created by rapid migrant flows. And we should help people to learn English, so they can engage with our society and be included.

Jobs

An academic study in the year 2000 by South Bank University found that over 3 million jobs in the UK are dependent on trade with the EU, including over 9000 in Peterborough. This research was updated in March this year by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, who found that the figure is now more than 4.2 million jobs that are dependent with trade with the EU. Although the new figures do not show a breakdown by constituency, they do show that 375,000 are in the East of England region which Peterborough is in. In addition, a YouGov survey of business owners last year showed that 1.5m jobs could be lost with EU exit, as business owners said they would have to shut if the UK left the EU.

Food and fuel

Energy security is one of the greatest challenges facing us at the moment, especially with fast-moving developments in Ukraine regularly in the news this year and the potential for disruption to gas supplies. It is through global co-operation that we tackle these issues, and as a member of the EU the UK has more clout than we would have on our own.

The Liberal Democrats are the only major UK party that puts tackling climate change at our heart. In the Coalition Government, our Environment Minister, Ed Davey, has worked to make sure the environment stays at the top of the agenda, including creating 200,000 new green jobs by investing in renewable energy. We have already doubled the amount of electricity generated from offshore wind. UKIP refuses to accept the widely held scientific view that climate change is man made.

Lib Dem MEPs have been working hard to reform the EU’s agricultural and fisheries policies, whereas when UKIP leader Nigel Farage had the chance to influence through membership of the Fisheries Committee, he only turned up to 1 out of 42 meetings.

Cost of EU Membership

European Commission figures for 2012 show that the UK paid in £11.1bn, and got back £5.7bn in rebates and grants, including for science and transport, so UK net contribution to the EU works out at £15m a day. However that doesn’t take into account the benefits of trade within the EU common market to the economy as a whole. The CBI estimates that EU membership adds £62bn-£78bn a year to UK gross domestic product, equivalent to £3,000 per household and £1,225 per individual.

The European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights was set up after the Second World War to protect the fundamental rights of people across Europe, and continues to do this. Liberal Democrats are long-time defenders of the European Court of Human Rights, and we are constantly frustrated by misleading coverage that paints human rights law as on the wrong side of the public – as well as the populist politicians who seize upon it. We accept the workings of the Court are not perfect, so as a party of government we have been seeking to use our influence in Europe to make changes.

Trade

The EU is the world’s biggest market, and one that other countries are keen to have access to. Through the EU British businesses get great access to foreign markets around the world. The EU has 37 free trade deals and is currently negotiating with the USA, Japan and India – deals that would be great for British manufacturers and services companies.If we left the EU we would have to renegotiate all these deals. There is no guarantee we would get the same terms on our own as the EU was able to negotiate.

In addition, we would have to negotiate to rejoin the EU single market. As a non-member we would have to accept the same rules we are signed up to now but without any say in what those rules are. This would not be in
our interests, so we argue it makes more sense to stay in the EU.

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