MP backs fight to stay in the EU

On June 23, the country will vote on whether the UK should stay a member of the European Union (EU).

Prime Minister David Cameron announced a date for the referendum on Saturday following negotiations on the UK’s relationship with the Brussels-based institution.

On the same day, Boston MP Matt Warman released a statement expressing his support for staying in the EU.

In it, he noted he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by the deal struck by the Prime Minister, saying: “As I’ve said previously, I’d leave the Europe we are in today, but this hard-won deal changes it significantly and for the better.”

He argued it was better to be part of a global trading block and reform it from within, than “cause decades of uncertainty by unwinding our current relationship”.

“There is, for me, too great a risk in leaving for an uncertain future, and it would be an irresponsible gamble to say, as some do, that leaving guarantees a better Britain,” he said.

Making reference to Boston, he said he believed the social changes it has seen – ‘cultural clashes’, ‘changing crime patterns’ and ‘the enormous pressure on public services’ – must be “set against the benefits of membership in a town that has, for instance, far fewer empty shops than other equivalents, as well as far greater cultural diversity and where the local economy is powering ahead”.

“I do not believe that the challenges we face locally will be solved sooner by leaving Europe,” he added.

l Mr Warman will be holding an open discussion on the UK’s relationship with the EU at Boston’s Blackfriars Theatre on Saturday, March 5, from 10am to noon. Anyone interested in going is asked to sign up via www.mattwarman.co.uk/sign-up