Tory MP James Cartlidge has backed the in campaign after the recent EU negotiations, but South Suffolk’s Labour Party chairman is voting out. Mr Cartlidge this week confirmed his support for remaining within the European Union.
“I have long felt there is huge potential strength in being a major EU nation like the UK that is inside the EU but outside the Euro,” he said.
“However, there was always doubt till now that this position would be protected from further integration.
“I said when I last spoke to the Free Press on this that I was strongly inclined to remain unless the negotiation went particularly badly, most notably on the issue of protection for non-Euro currencies going forward, such as the Pound.
“As it is, the negotiation has delivered genuine protection for our currency against discrimination within a single market of half a billion people.
“If we vote to remain, we have the security that we can enjoy a strong, independent currency with unfettered access to the single market.
“In contrast, no matter which individuals backs ‘Brexit’, we have no answer to the substantive question of what our arrangements would look like if we left the EU.
“Just this week credit agency Moody’s have threatened to downgrade our national credit rating if we exit the EU.
“The economic uncertainty of leaving the EU contrasts with the strength of finally putting our indecision behind us and voting to remain. With the new protections we have going forward, this would be the ideal platform for our economy to go from strength to strength, creating more opportunity for young people in South Suffolk.”
South Suffolk Labour Party chairman Luke Cresswell has decided to back the campaign to leave. “The Labour Party locally and nationally will be supporting the in campaign but I personally have decided to campaign to leave,” he said.
“I would suggest our MP is more worried about his future career in the Conservative party rather than the people.
“Anybody can see David Cameron’s so called renegotiation was a sham and achieved nothing.
“I don’t agree with the rhetoric of UKIP but I do believe for democratic reasons we should vote to leave the EU. The EU serves corporations and big business, not people. Just look at how the EU treated Greece.”
Steven Whalley, chairman of UKIP South Suffolk said: “Mr Cartlidge is of course free to take up with the ‘in’ campaign, and he has to act in the way which he feels best.
“However, this goes against the wishes of many of his constituents. This includes his own Conservative party, which in recent weeks has sent two open letters to the Prime Minister, one from the parliamentary party and another from Tory Babergh councillors, objecting to Mr Cameron’s dismissal of their ‘grassroots’ views on leaving the EU.
“For UKIP this is not only a gift to our local UKIP campaign, but boosts the strengthening cross-party national ‘go’ campaign, which must attract many Conservatives as it allows grassroots views to be aired without censure.
“The public announcement of Boris Johnson’s support for a leave vote in the referendum, and its divided reception in the Conservatives, has exposed their many fault lines.
“Mr Cartlidge should be prepared to state his reasons for wanting a remain vote, in a public forum, where he can be challenged by what I believe is the significant cross-party consensus in South Suffolk for a Leave vote. Is he up to it?”
Published in the SFP.