THE MEON Valley MP has confirmed he will be crossing the ‘stay’ box in June as Britain moves close to its European D-day.
George Hollingbery made the announcement on Sunday in an e-mail to residents who attended his European Union (EU) referendum meetings in Horndean and Botley.
The Conservative said he would prefer the UK to stay in the European Union and “make it better” instead of leaving and taking its chances.
And while he accepts that many constituents will disagree with his view, he has ruled out any direct campaigning for the ‘Remain-ians’ as he insists his vote is just one among millions.
He said: “There is no advantage to anyone, particularly my staff or those constituents who need our help, in consuming limited staff resources to such an end.”
The e-mail that has since been posted on www.georgehollingbery.com/EUletter is a lengthy one and touches on immigration, sovereignty and the EU’s impact on UK finances and laws.
Although Mr Hollingbery has concluded that staying in the UK represents a “lower risk”, he does have concerns with the current set up and believes that reform is a necessity.
He said: “Issues like the insistence on increasing the EU’s budget when most nations face cuts internally and the parliament changing location once a month are clearly not encouraging indicators.
“Also, if we want total transparency and clearly accountable democracy, the only alternative is to turn the EU into a nation state. I doubt that is what many people in the UK really want to happen.”
But while he accepts the EU’s migration policy has “caused clear problems”, the Tory also believes it has brought benefits with the UK being largely protected from the huge movement of refugees coming from Syria and further afield.
He summarised: “If we leave the EU we will have to renegotiate our relationships with the EU and others, and, in doing so, yield sovereignty in many as yet unknown ways with highly predictable outcomes.
“The net economic effects of leaving are also highly uncertain. We have achieved some small progress down the road on reform and I believe that the bigger prizes for the UK and the whole of the EU lie in further, more ambitious reform.”