Henry Smith MP column, RH Uncovered Magazine, April 2016
By the time this magazine goes to print, there will be a little over two months until the remain/leave referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.
I have been an EU sceptic for many years and have voted in favour of a referendum on numerous occasions. It was a pledge I stood on at the 2015 General Election and one that has now been realised because of the majority Conservative Government, led by David Cameron, elected last year.
While there is not enough space on this page for me to outline my reasons in full, I will be voting for the UK to leave the EU.
This is for a number of reasons, but primarily because our long and great history of freedom and democracy is been increasingly threatened.
If you do not like a Government in Westminster or your local council leadership, you can easily vote them out. However, any Government in Westminster is constrained by rules and regulations imposed by a highly centralised and largely un-democratic EU.
Europe should be about free trade, not political control and interference. By leaving the EU we can have that.
I appreciate that while some people in Crawley will support my position, there will be those who disagree, and many who are using the referendum campaign period to make up their mind on the issue.
Everyone who is registered to vote has an equal say – at the ballot box, you and I have as much of a voice as the Prime Minister.
Henry Smith MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
01293 934554/020 7219 7043
henry.smith.mp@parliament.uk
www.henrysmith.info