Before retiring I spent my career an economist and investment manager. I also have an abiding interest in politics and history. This article is written to help people make up their minds on the momentous issue of leaving or remaining in the EU. It is not a neutral analysis because, as the title suggests, I am strongly in favour of Brexit. I was only hesitantly in favour of leaving, but the more I examined it the more the case for Remain crumbled away.

There are four main reasons why I think the UK should leave the EU. These are:  

To Restore Sovereignty to Parliament

To me this is the overriding reason for leaving the EU. In the Act of Accession, which we signed on joining, EU law has supremacy over British law. According to the House of Commons Library (an impeccable source) up to 60% of our laws originate from Brussels. Furthermore, these laws are not even generated by the European Parliament – inadequate as it is - but by the unelected European Commission. As it stands the UK electorate is unable to remove or hold to account those responsible for large swathes of our laws, rules and regulations. To me it is inconceivable that unelected European bureaucrats can govern large and constantly growing areas of British life better than our elected representatives.    

If the concept of sovereignty sounds academic the Prime Minister’s attempt to re-negotiate our relationship with the EU provided a concrete example of what the lack of it means in practise. The PM needed to get the permission of all the other 27 EU members to make trivial changes affecting immigrant access to tax credits and child benefits. It required humiliating rounds of negotiations before concessions (sort of!) were made.  

Justice Secretary Michael Gove vividly describes the lack of influence that government ministers have over many decisions:  

“As a Minister I’ve seen hundreds of new EU rules cross my desk, none of which were requested by the UK Parliament, none of which I or any other British politician could alter in any way and none of which made us freer, richer, or fairer…...I have long had concerns about our membership of the EU but the experience of government has only deepened my conviction that we need change. …..I believe that the decisions which govern all our lives, the laws we must all obey and the taxes we must all pay should be decided by people we choose and who we can throw out if we want change…. But our membership of the EU prevents us being able to change huge swathes of law and stops us being able to choose who makes critical decisions which affect all our lives.”

David Fuller's view

Both Eoin and I agreed that Robert Lee’s assessment was the most factually informative and unemotional report that we have read.  I commend it to you.