SalfordOnline.com has invited all three local MPs to write their own pieces on whether the country should Vote Leave or Vote Remain in the 23 June EU Referendum.
Barbara Keeley has been the MP for Worsley and Eccles South since 2005. She is a former Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and a former Shadow Treasury minister.
Currently she is a Shadow Health minister and continues to voice strong support for carers, improvements in health and social care, and women in sport.
She writes…
On 23rd June we will make an important decision on whether to Remain in, or to Leave the European Union. That decision will affect not only our generation, but future generations.
I will be voting for us to Remain in the EU. I believe that the benefits to Salford of staying in the EU are too important to be put at risk.
EU Membership brings us jobs, growth and investment.
In the North West, nearly half a million jobs are linked to our trade with the EU.
But this decision it is not just about the jobs, it is also about our rights at work, protecting consumers and the environment.
EU-funded projects have brought new jobs and investment to the North West.
In Salford, EU funding has helped to deliver much needed regeneration and investment. Salford University’s Energy Hub received funding to equip and fit out the hub.
Fiddlers Lane Primary School in Irlam recently benefitted from funding from the Erasmus Programme, run by the EU.
The EU has brought us more rights and better conditions at work. The Conservative Government had to bring in the Equal Pay Act in 1984 due to EU Law.
The EU guaranteed rights for part-time workers. Because of the EU we have both paid maternity leave and the right to return to work without loss of position or pay. A vote to Leave the EU would mean these crucial protections could be attacked in the UK.
The Conservative Government has shown it cannot be trusted even to enforce increases in the national minimum wage, particularly in the care sector.
I would not trust them with all those other hard-won rights at work if we left the EU.
The EU protects British consumers, saving the average family around £450 a year due to the lower prices that come from being part of the biggest market in the world.
The EU protects our environment.
It was only due to EU regulations on air quality that Highways England was not allowed to run traffic on the hard shoulder of the M60, which would have brought pollution closer to homes and schools.
The Conservative Government does not take air pollution seriously, so we rely on the EU to protect our environment and our health.
In Salford we are much stronger if we stay in the EU, which is why I am voting for Britain to Remain in the European Union on 23rd June.
