"The Tories do not have a track record of prioritising the people of the North"

With only weeks to go until the EU referendum much of the debate still revolves around either the economy or immigration. I wanted to know what the effect would be not only on the country but on me personally as a man living in in Yorkshire. I asked Linda McAvan, MEP for the area whether she thought that a university city such as Sheffield, who’s economy depends largely on our tens of thousands of students,  would be less attractive to foreign students from both inside and outside the EU should we decide to leave.

She says “Visa free travel and the right to live, work and study in another EU country makes studying in the UK significantly easier for EU students.  Students, including UK students, can participate in study abroad programmes like Erasmus, Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, and Erasmus + all of which receive maintenance to help cover living costs.  Currently, EU students are treated as ‘home students’ meaning they pay the same fees as their UK contemporaries.  Brexit could change the status of EU/ European Economic Area (EEA) students to that of international students. Students from non EU/ EEA countries pay significantly higher to attend university in the UK.   

 EU membership has also provided access to considerable funding streams such as the Horizon 2020 fund which provides the UK with £8.5bn for research and development. Much of this money goes into University research programmes.  Access to such funding assists in the hiring of the best and most skilled academics from across the European Union. This collectively has a substantial impact on the quality of teaching and placement opportunities for students. Better learning opportunities enhance the student experience and contribute to the quality of degree programmes.   

EU students contribute £3.7bn to the UK economy. If fewer EU students started coming to the UK to study due to visa and finance issues such as the rising cost of fees, student numbers will reduce, this will have a knock on consequence on staffing levels as Universities will have less money. Less resources will be put into degrees and universities would have difficulty attracting the best staff to teach courses.  This would leave the UK trying to compete for EU and international students.

It is worth pointing out that in the event of a Brexit the UK could join the EEA just like Norway or Switzerland which would give us access to the EU single market. This however would require the UK to agree to the free movement of people, pay a contribution to the EU budget, and require adherence to EU rules and regulations without consultation or having a seat at the negotiating table”.

My second question was whether the North of England will suffer more than the South in the event of an out vote.

She told me “Economic differences already exist between the North and the South. Tory policies in the 80s and 90’s had a devastating economic impact on areas like South Yorkshire. EU investment through the programmes such as Objective 1&2, the European Regional Development Fund, and European Structural Fund put money back into the region. If Brexit happens, it will do so under a conservative government. The Tories do not have a track record of prioritising the people of the North”.

I asked Linda if she thought immigration was as big an issue as we are led to believe or is the real issue that we don’t have enough hospitals, schools or houses being built making immigrants simply an easy target. She said “The policies of the current government and the previous coalition government did not do enough to support the development of schools, hospitals and houses. The Affordable Housing Bill put forward by the Tories has done nothing to alleviate the housing crisis. In fact, home ownership has fallen in the past 6 years and rents have sky rocketed. Other EU countries have much higher EU migration.  Norway, for example, has higher EU migration than the UK in terms of proportion of their population. Unfortunately, Immigrants are always an easy target but lack of coherent policies from the government is at the root of these issues.

My conclusion from talking to Linda and previously her colleague Richard Corbett, is that locally, the people of cities like Sheffield will undoubtedly be worse off if we leave the EU. There are many cities in the UK that are very similar to Sheffield that would suffer also. I’m convinced that what the two MEPs are telling me is at least credible and almost certainly true. I am yet to hear an argument from the brexiteers that has credibility or evidence.

Only a vote to remain will allow us any certainty and stability.