Stronger in

Unite’s campaign is based on the message vote jobs, vote rights, vote Remain.

Vote jobs – for the hundreds of thousands of our members, particularly in manufacturing, whose jobs depend on our membership of the EU.

Vote rights – to protect some of our most important workplace rights that are underpinned by EU legislation.

And vote Remain – because for trade union members, in the NHS and across the economy, our future is better as part of the EU.

Unite is clear – the NHS is stronger when we remain part of the European Union. The biggest danger to the NHS is not the EU.  The biggest dangers are people like Boris Johnson, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Gove who have spent their lives trying to destroy the NHS.

Hypocritical sham

It is laughable that these same people now portray themselves as the health service’s great defenders. And what about Priti Patel promising £100m back to the NHS if we leave? This is fantasy economics, but it’s also cruel and deceitful.

Her government has starved the NHS of funds and created chaos with a needless reorganisation that has cost it billions that ought to have gone to patient care.  She is part of a government that has alienated doctors and will place trainee nurses in financial ruin.  How dare she ask for our members and our communities’ votes?

I believe that Unite members and the public generally can see through this shameful and hypocritical sham.

The NHS is under threat.  But not from Brussels.  It is under threat from this government and its agenda of cuts and privatisation.

Whatever it takes

It is Unite members – dedicated health workers, in medical research, and working for our nation’s physical and mental health, preventing disease, supporting new parents and helping our children thrive – who know in their hearts and from their day to day experiences.

They know that the way to protect the NHS is more and sustainable funding underpinned by genuinely valuing the workforce and all that they do. Unite will do whatever it takes to defend the NHS because it is vital for every one of our 1.4m members.

Our NHS members have been telling us loud and clear how crucial it is that we remain in the EU for its future. They say the NHS could not function without the hard work and dedication of their colleagues who have come from across the EU to work alongside them, and in whose countries we access free health care.

Unite members in manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture energy and construction know that we need the economic stability and growth that membership of the EU brings us to ensure the future of their jobs and funding for the NHS.

And I believe that the values that make the NHS strong –solidarity, equality and society – are the same values that make Europe strong.

So Unite is urging our members, and trade unionists everywhere – vote Remain.