Day of action on Saturday will include call to hand EU migrant tax take back to communities

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labour MPs in leave constituencies are calling on the government to release £4.7bn in tax paid by EU workers to regenerate communities left behind by the north-south divide.

In a day of action for a second referendum, on Saturday, they will announce a campaign for a “globalisation fund”, claiming that it should be the “new deal” for communities left behind by austerity.

Campaigners behind the 750,000-strong People’s Vote march in London in October will be out in force on Saturday at rallies around the country as part of a national day of action before the parliamentary vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday.

Grassroots activists will be out in town centres in about 130 locations, with rallies in key leave constituencies including Sheffield and Sedgefield, where speakers will include the local Labour MP Phil Wilson; Bridget Phillipson, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South; and Anna Turley, Labour MP for Redcar.

Rallies will also be held, from 11am in Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London (Islington), Newcastle and Nottingham.

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Wilson described Brexit as “a gigantic three-year distraction” that has “wasted time and energy we should have spent fixing the real problems this country faces”.

“This weekend I’m going to be in my constituency saying that Brexit is a bad deal which won’t solve any of the problems facing my constituents,” he said. “The places that voted for Brexit are the places where the challenges this country faces are felt most keenly. But I have faith that these communities also the places where the answers will be found.”

Turley, whose north-east constituency voted 66.2% to leave, said a “globalisation fund” is the fresh thinking that is needed for families and workers in the area.

“Leaving the EU does not fix the problems that led to Brexit. This is the sort of radical thinking this country needs to genuinely reconnect with the communities left behind by years of globalisation.

“Migration benefits our economy, but £4.7bn we receive every year from European migrants flows straight into government’s coffers in Westminster and austerity means communities like Redcar don’t see a penny.”

Turley added: “We should spend this money where it’s really needed – outside of London and the south-east – in communities that have not felt the benefits of an increasingly global economy.”

The People’s Vote campaigners have chosen the migrant tax take as a neat way of focusing on one of the causes of deindustrialisation (globalisation) but also on the positive contribution made by immigrants they might have voted against.

Their £4.7bn figure is based on recent research by the Migration Advisory Committee.



People’s Vote says it is growing daily, boasting 30,000 active members and 170 local action groups, with cross-party support from Labour and Tory MPs including Anna Soubry and Jo Johnson, who recently resigned as transport minister.

They believe that voter hopes there will be a tangible Brexit dividend are unfounded in deindustrialised areas that voted leave.

Angela Smith, Labour MP for Penistone and Stockbridge, said a globalisation fund “would have a massive impact in parts of the country that have been hit by the decline of traditional industries and strangled by a decade of austerity”.