South Northamptonshire councillor, Martin Johns replies to our Member of Parliament Andrea Leadsom’s open letter to her constituents.

On Thursday we will have probably the most important vote we will ever cast at the ballot box. The outcome of the referendum will profoundly effect us, and our children and grandchildren for decades to come. The question comes down to whether we remain as a leader in Europe and the world, or leave the world’s biggest trading block and let others decide our future.

With their bizarre conspiracy theories, the Leave campaign shuns all the financial experts, indeed they denigrate experts of any sort. The Leave campaign portrays the overwhelming mass of economic evidence as simply lies. In the 40 years that I’ve been involved with politics I’ve never seen anything like the inflammatory propaganda run by Farage and others in the Leave campaign. Instead of the economic realities of life, Andrea asks us to simply put our trust in her, and Nigel Farage, Dennis Skinner, George Gallaway, and Boris. Trust us they say, take a punt with your job, your savings, your pension and with the public services you rely on. The risk of another recession is worth it Farage keeps telling us.

Andrea writes of “when the heat and noise of this referendum has passed” but be under no illusion, if Britain leaves the EU much more than heat and noise will adversely affect us, our families and neighbours for many years to come.

If you want to keep the United Kingdom united, a Europe that’s peaceful and prosperous, with a cleaner, greener environment, with workers and family rights secure, I urge you to vote on Thursday to Remain in the EU.