Next month, the British public will have the opportunity to decide if the United Kingdom remains in the European Union. It's a big decision - one that will have an effect for years to come. 

The Government believes that voting to remain in the EU is the best decision for the UK. Others in the Leave camp, think Britain is being held back by the EU. 

Here, two leading figures in the county's campaigns give their contrasting views


John Stanyer LEAVE John Stanyer, Vote Leave Chairman Cumbria:  How we vote in the upcoming referendum is the most important decision we will make in our lifetimes.

Do we wish to be a free, proud successful nation who looks to the future with hope and optimism? Or do you feel we are no longer good enough, not

capable of running our own lives and need the EU to tell us what to do for the next 100 years.

We joined the EEC in 1974; it was supposed to be about trade and friendly relationships with Europe. However our politicians and political elites have constantly lied to us, they planned this all along but knew we would never consent if we knew the truth.

So what have 40 years of the EU done for us in Cumbria? Well we need only look close to home to see how we have lost over half of our fishing fleet and thousands of jobs at sea and on land. Yet Spanish, French and Italian boats fish our waters.

Farming is in crises with massive EU regulation and low prices at the farm gate, a once great industry has been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. If we leave we can support our farmers properly like Norway and Switzerland and reduce food prices by £540 per home per year.

Cumbria has lost over 17,000 jobs in heavy industry in the last 35 years.

Our membership of the EU has not helped us retain jobs in Coal, Steel and engineering.

The Chinese dump their steel on our country and we are powerless to stop them in the EU.

The current scale of migration to the UK, 330,000 a year is completely unsustainable.

Our population is projected to rise by over half a million every year- a city the size of Liverpool. This is just the official figures.

We discovered this week that the figures for the last three years were not 900,000 but were in fact 2.8 million. Once again the Government lied to us.

Our public services are at breaking point yet we are sending £14.8 Billion per year to the EU.

This money would be better spent on our NHS providing good healthcare for our people. Last year we sent £600 million to the EU to pay for healthcare for the 2 million Britain’s living abroad. But only go £45 million back to pay for the 4.8 million EU Migrants living here.

If we remain, the EU will dominate our lives in the future, we will be poorer and less free so please vote to leave on June 23.


Alistair MacKintosh REMAIN Alistair MacKintosh, National Farmers' Union: It’s not just lack of detail that dictates my cross will be firmly marked ‘Remain’, it’s also historical evidence. 

At every opportunity when the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been in the process of reform, successive UK governments have attempted to have direct support payments to farmers reduced. That, in my book, is a true indication that our treasury clearly feels that agriculture should be an unsupported sector.

The CAP delivers excellent value for money for EU citizens at a cost of 23 pence per day. It ensures that consumers have access to food that is fully traceable from field to fork and produced to the highest welfare standards in the world. It would be extremely difficult to replace but if the UK were to leave the EU, the Government must make clear its policy in relation to its support for farming.

Some sort of support payment would need to be implemented to help farmers and growers manage volatility.

Only 53 per cent of the nation’s food needs will be produced from home farms in the next 25 years, and the CAP payments received by farmers play a major part in supporting government’s cheap food policy. If direct payments were to reduce, or cease to exist post Brexit, the market must be prepared for food prices to rise and consumers would need to pay more for the quality assured food we produce.

As for exporting, what on Earth makes us think we have the capabilities to compete on our own in a global market? It would be like a fly biting an elephant. 

We are a trading nation but to believe that to remove ourselves from the biggest free trade block and then to broker deals with other countries seems to me to be reckless - especially when all the others act as one such as Mercosur, the Pacific countries, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China and India.

It is vital that the UK is fully engaged with the EU and influences trade deals that are done so that market access is grown. Access to major markets such as China and the USA must be negotiated at an EU level to ensure there is significant scale and benefit to all parties involved.

Like it or not, the Europeans, via tariffs, jealously guard and protect their own market. We are currently inside that protection and I don’t want to be out.

The benefits of EU membership far outweigh the cost. It has been estimated that it costs each tax payer £4 per week for the CAP budget that comes back to UK farmers - that equates to less than 60 pence per day. 

Surely this is a small price to pay to have access to affordable British food that is produced to the highest standards anywhere in the world. Our traceability and welfare standards are unrivalled and envied by everyone – surely that alone is worth fighting for.