Brexit is already having an effect on farmers here in South Leicestershire, one local dairy farmer told us earlier this month.
"Mine is a small business with a moderate turnover and currently no profits. I pay little tax but I do provide two and half jobs. I also pay several thousand pounds a month to other businesses for goods and services. My business therefore has a value to the wider community. But its future in threatened by Brexit.
"I have come to rely on labour from Eastern Europe because British people prepared to milk cows are an increasingly rare commodity. My experience is repeated across the industry. Over 60% of staff on dairy forms in the UK are Eastern European. My Romanian employee has already left because the fall in the value of the pound has effectively lowered his wages.
"The likely effects of Brexit are being downplayed to the public. Agricultural commodities are priced in US dollars. My costs have therefore risen by 15%. Dairy farming is not profitable enough to absorb the extra cost and the consumer will inevitably suffer. If we get to the stage of actually leaving the EU I believe the inflationary effect on food prices will increase dramatically.
"The referendum campaign was scandalous. Those who voted Leave were sold a lie."
I think it’s fair to say,
that 2016 is a year that will live long in all our memories.
It saw twelve months of
enormous change not just in Britain but the world.
But the New Year gives all
the opportunity to start afresh.
One of the best things
about my job as Leader of the Labour Party is meeting some fantastic people all
over the country. But every day I see the political system letting down the
people of this country; how decisions made in Westminster are making people’s
lives harder. Whether that’s elderly people not receiving the care at home they
deserve, putting huge strain on them and their family, or whether it’s the
people waiting longer in A&E or on trolleys because our National Health
Service and social care system is at breaking point, despite the best efforts
of the wonderful and dedicated staff. Whether it’s the homeless families
who are being priced out of a housing market that only works for the few. This
Christmas, 120,000 children didn’t have a home to call their own. That’s
scandalous. And it’s damaging those young people’s formative years. Our
children also need a first class education for everyone, not just for a
privileged few.
As well as insecure
housing there is massive insecurity at work too. Millions of people can’t plan
their lives because whether on temporary or zero hours contracts they don’t
know what job or what hours they’ll have from day to day, week to week or month
to month. And for many, pay is so low that it doesn’t make ends meet.
2016 will be defined in history by the referendum on our EU membership. People didn’t trust politicians and
they didn’t trust the European Union. I understand that. I’ve spent over 40
years in politics campaigning for a better way of doing things, standing up for
people, taking on the establishment, and opposing decisions that would make us
worse off.
We now have the chance to do things differently. To build an economy
that invests and works for everyone across all our nations and regions.
Labour accepts and respects
the result of the referendum. We won’t be blocking our leaving the European
Union, but we won’t stand by. Those in charge today have put the jobs market,
housing, the NHS and social care in crisis. We can’t let them mess this up.
It’s about everyone’s future. A Brexit that protects the bankers in the City
and continues to give corporate handouts to the biggest companies is not good
enough.
Labour was founded to stand
up for people, and we founded the institutions that do that day in, and day
out, like our NHS. We are the party that
listens to you and makes Britain better. Let’s do that, together, in 2017.
