15 January 2018

A report commissioned by the Mayor of London last week found that a ‘no deal’ Brexit could cost as many as 87,000 jobs in London alone. [1]

Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, responded in a letter to London’s Evening Standard explaining that Brexit will also have a grave social impact that must not be overlooked.

Read the full letter below, or on the Evening Standard website here.

 

No wonder the Government has been so desperate to keep its Brexit- impact assessments under wraps — if, in fact, it has been bothered to conduct any assessments at all. We now hear Brexit will put more than 480,000 jobs at risk nationwide, including up to 87,000 in London.

However, we also know that this will be just one of the devastating impacts of Brexit. A report I released last month found that London is set to lose more than  £500 million in EU funding each year towards supporting its communities. That’s £5 billion over the course of a decade. These funds change Londoners’ lives — from helping young people out of poverty to regenerating urban spaces. [2]

There’s a great deal at stake for Londoners, and this can’t be neatly placed into boxes labelled “jobs” or “productivity”. It is critical that the Government and the Mayor highlight these other social issues. I’m calling for concrete guarantees that London’s people and communities will not be harmed by the Government’s reckless, blinkered approach to Brexit.

Jean Lambert, MEP for London (Green)

 

Notes:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/11/brexit-uk-could-lose-half-a-million-jobs-with-no-deal-says-sadiq-khan

[2] http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Losing-It-Over-Brexit-2017.pdf