Shropshire Star

Brexit: Shropshire short-changed four to one, says the Leave camp

Shropshire and Staffordshire receive just £1 in regional funding for every £4 they pay in, according to those campaigning to leave the EU.

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Shropshire-based Ukip Euro MP Jill Seymour and former Labour minister Nigel Griffiths have both said the counties are being short-changed and would be better of out of the EU.

The figures come from a report by the Open Europe think-tank, and relates to payments to the EU's structural and cohesion funds from 2007-13.

They show that over a six-year period the European Union contributed just £176,000 to the economies of Shropshire and Staffordshire – while at the same time taking away £713,000 from the two counties.

This is despite the two counties having below average disposable incomes.

Mrs Seymour, who was elected in 2014, said it was ridiculous that a fund to supposedly help the less affluent areas of society was hitting areas with below-average incomes in this way.

"Of the 37 British regions which are covered in the report's classification, a staggering 35 put more into the EU's bank account than they receive back," she said. "Only West Wales and Cornwall are net beneficiaries."

Mr Griffiths, who is head of strategy at the Eurosceptic Labour Go campaign, said that it was time for Britain to regain control of its regional regeneration policies.

He said it was estimated that 70 per cent of Britain's contributions to the EU went to other member states, with just a quarter returning to the regions which had contributed the money, and five per cent going to other parts of the UK.

Mr Griffiths, who was deputy leader of the Commons in Tony Blair's government, said: "From our £19 billion annual contribution to Brussels, we get back a miserly £1.2 billion for regional development. It is time to take back control instead of handing over billions."

He said former prime minister Gordon Brown had identified the injustice 13 years ago, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"He said it the time was ripe to "bring regional policy back to Britain, but got nowhere redressing the imbalance," he said.

The commitment was then dropped when David Cameron and Nick Clegg drew up their coalition agreement in 2010.

Over the 2007-2013 EU budgetary period, the UK contributed roughly £29.5billion to the EU's structural and cohesion funds, getting back around £8.7 billion.

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