Torfaen Constituency Labour Party
Promoted by Mark Ward-Jones on behalf of the Torfaen Constituency Labour Party at 27 Brunel Road, Fairwater, Cwmbran, Torfaen NP44 4QT.
Torfaen Politicians’ Joint Letter In Support of EU Remain Campaign
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP and Lynne Neagle AM
Working together for Torfaen
nick.thomassymonds.mp@parliament.uk
01495 740498
lynne.neagle@assembly.wales
01495 740022
Dear local residents,
As we know many local people have questions about the referendum this Thursday, we had planned to hold a series of coffee mornings and surgeries in Blaenavon, Pontypool and Cwmbran last Friday. However, the tragic events of last week meant that we had to postpone, so we thought we’d write this letter instead.
We know this is an issue that has provoked strong feelings, and we would never presume to tell people which way to vote. However, as people have asked us for our thoughts, we wanted to outline them.
We believe that Torfaen would be best served by a vote to remain in the EU. That is not because we think the EU is perfect – we recognise the concerns that people have about many issues including immigration. But we don’t believe these problems would be solved if we left the EU. Instead, we believe our membership of the EU gives us five key benefits:
- Being a part of one of the largest trading areas in the world helps create and protect jobs. In the EU, our exporters don’t have to pay tariffs to sell in Europe, helping them trade. No-one knows what would happen if we left the EU, so jobs in local factories could be endangered.
- Our membership of the EU protects vital rights at work, like maternity leave and paid holiday. We don’t trust the Tory UK Government to protect these rights if we leave.
- Torfaen and other valleys areas benefit from EU structural funding, which helps with local regeneration, funds community facilities and runs schemes to assist people getting jobs. There is no guarantee this money would come to Wales if we left, especially with the Tories in power. Our councils have already had to make big cuts thanks to the UK Government – even less funding coming into our area would be devastating.
- The biggest achievement of the EU has been building peace after the bloodshed of the first half of the last century. We believe our membership of the EU helps us resolve problems peacefully and helps us tackle the big security challenges facing us together in partnership.
- We believe in working together with our European neighbours – to tackle issues like climate change and to build a better future together. We think that makes Britain stronger as a nation, not weaker.
We work hard to stand up for local people here in Torfaen and we love our country – we believe Britain is better off remaining in the EU.
Yours sincerely,
Ps. Whatever your views in this referendum, we are here to stand up for you. If we can ever be of any assistance, you are welcome to use the contact details in this letter.
