[Wrighty]

I have received another e-mail from Graham Jones regarding the EU

Further to your previous email regarding the Commons motion on an EU membership referendum, I understand that our membership of the European Union is an issue which is very important to some people, so I wanted to explain the reasons I voted against the motion.

I wish first of all to dispel the belief that this motion would somehow lead to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The referendum proposed was not a simple yes/no question, it was a triple question offering in/out/in with reform. Opinion polls consistently show that the latter would win comfortably, locking Britain into Europe.

Secondly is the issue of my position prior to the general election. I stood as a Labour candidate on a Labour manifesto and was elected as such. The views of the Labour Party on Europe are well documented, and even if I did not share these views, it is important that I deliver to my constituents the promises upon which I was elected.

The UK’s membership of the EU has brought a great many benefits to UK citizens, most notably in the area of workers’ rights. The TUPE, the Working Time Directive, guarantees of fair pay, paid holidays and maternity and paternity leave are all guaranteed by European law. Indeed, the EU protects us as consumers as well as workers; the reduction in the cost of mobile phone calls to other European countries was the result of decisions made in Europe.

The Tory MPs who decry the EU as a ‘socialist’ organisation are in my view knowingly (or carelessly) attacking something which guarantees the working standards of my constituents, because of an ideological belief in the insignificance of such rights. There are many in my Party who are anti-EU, however it became evident during the debate that there was a split between the Labour euro sceptics and the Tory MPs who were interested only in undermining workers rights. As a Labour MP I refused to play any part in the continued dilution of workers’ rights.

Lastly is the issue of an alternative. If the UK was to leave the EU, we would surely still wish to trade with it (it is by far our greatest trade partner), and EU regulation would still apply to goods we wished to export to Europe. Therefore businesses would still have their goods regulated by Europe, but the UK would no longer have a say (not to mention a veto) on the formulation of these regulations. If we are to have the export-driven recovery that the government is pursuing, I think now is a particularly bad time to consider leaving the European Union.

I regret that I cannot support a referendum on membership of the EU until these issues have been addressed, a credible alternative to membership has been articulated, and euro sceptics on the right accept comprehensive employment legislation.

Yours sincerely
Graham Jones