Jobs and the economy in East London will suffer as a result of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, according to a Hackney councillor, Guy Nicholson.
Following the historic Brexit vote this week, Nicholson, cabinet member of regeneration for Hackney council, told East London Lines: “The one thing that disturbs business growth and prosperity is uncertainty and we are now in an era of uncertainty.”
The decision to exit the European Union leaves Britain uncertain about what the future might hold especially after the value of sterling slumped dramatically to its lowest level since 1985.
Local people and businesses will be affected by Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
Hackney, for instance, relies on a social fund of around £17m, half of which is provided by the European Union and the other half from the council.
This money is invested in the borough to support local business, create new jobs and improve learning and skills development.
Goods and services in the borough are produced by approximately 11,000 businesses in the creative, business and tech sector. Most of these businesses rely on European support to grow.
Leaving the European Union and losing that fund is to going to negatively affect the local economy.
Cllr Nicholson explained: “We are in a position that initiatives like this are probably not going to last longer. Once that European money goes the training and skills initiative would unravel.
“Productivity and prosperity are prejudiced and this means that our local economy is not creating job opportunities and therefore we are not able to connect local businesses with the wider community,” he added.
Also, he was concerned that, David Cameron resigning from his position as UK’s prime minister leaves the future of the country’s politics unknown.
“This is not good for Hackney or Britain,” Cllr Nicholson warned
He believes that the national leadership needs to: “create certainty and stability”.
In Thursday’s referendum, around 52 per cent of Britons voted in favour of leaving the union, while 48 per cent voted to remain. London voted to remain by 60:40 per cent. However some surprise has been expressed at the number of Leave votes cast in London’s most culturally diverse boroughs.
In Lewishm 30 per cent of the voting public wanted UK independence from the EU.
Tower Hamlets, with its rich ethnic mix saw more than 32 per cent of the population vote leave.
In Croydon, 45.7 per cent were in favour of quitting the EU.
While in Hackney, only 21.5 per cent backed Brexit. Though some residents voiced their surprise that anyone at all had voted Leave in the east London borough.
where the f are the almost TWENTY THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE in Hackney who voted to leave the EU hiding
— dylan huw (@dylanhuw) June 24, 2016
The warden of Goldsmiths, in Lewisham, has assured students from EU countries that the decision will not affect them even though: “it presents all of us with uncertainty and questions”, he said.
On a bigger scale, following the referendum results, 67,833 Remain supporters in London have signed a petition for London to be independent in order to re-join the EU again – with Mayor Sadiq Khan as President.
Another petition has also been launched calling for a second EU referendum. At the time of publishing it had received more than 1.2 million signatures.
The appeal, which was set up by William Oliver Healey, stated: “We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout of less than 75% there should be another referendum.”
As more than 100,000 people have signed this petition it will be considered for a debate in parliament.
London was the second largest region in the UK to support remaining in the EU, after Scotland.
