The European Movement has today launched a cross-party campaign to petition the Government to publish 50 publicly-funded studies it conducted into the impact that Brexit will have across various sectors of the UK’s economy, after leaked data showed a potential shortage of 40,000 nurses by 2026.
The campaign is backed by representatives from the Labour party, Liberal Democrats and Green party, as well as pro-EU campaign organisations the European Movement UK, Healthier IN the EU and Scientists for EU, who believe that, given the significance of the decision to leave the European Union, the public has a democratic right to be informed as to the anticipated impact of the decision on our economy and country's future.
Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the Green party, said:
“It is in the public interest that the Brexit process is as open and transparent as possible. If the government is withholding significant information about the future of our country from the people it is there to represent, then it is working against the very principle of democracy.”
Richard Corbett, Labour MEP and vice-chair of the European Movement said:
“The fact that the government wants to keep people in the dark about the consequences of Brexit can mean only one thing: that the Leave Campaign won on a false prospectus and Brexit will be costly, damaging to the economy, and destructive of jobs.”
Catherine Bearder, Liberal Democrat MEP, said:
“These are studies paid for from the public purse, they should be shared with the people who paid for them - the public, right now. Mrs May, David Davies and the Tory party must not be allowed to damage this country irrevocably by pursuing a damaging Brexit. Those of us who are fighting for our future relationship with the EU need to have these impartial facts and the government must release these reports.”
Dr Rob Davidson, Director of Healthier in the EU, said:
“Given that leaked figures have shown that the NHS could be short of 40,000 nurses by 2026, it is imperative that the government opens up about the impact Brexit will have across the fifty other sectors it has researched so far.”
The campaign comes after Green MEP, Molly Scott Cato, published correspondence from the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU). This DExEU correspondence acknowledged that 50 sectors of the economy had been analysed, but government has not agreed to share the results of the research.