PROBABLY the best reason I have heard for leaving the EU was given by a supporter of the remain campaign. 

Lord Rose, chairman of the Britain Stronger In Europe’s board, has stated that wages for British workers will rise in the event of a UK exit.  To me this sounds like good news. 

But why should wages rise? Well, it all comes down to a basic law of economics: the law of supply and demand. 

Part of this law states that if a commodity is in surplus with respect to demand then the price will drop.  We see it in the current low price of oil, a consequence of a glut of oil in world markets and the reluctance of producers to reduce production.   

How does this apply to wages? Wages are the price paid for labour. 

So a surplus of labour puts downward pressure on wages. 

Built into the structure of the EU, free movement of people means that there will always be a glut of labour available to UK businesses. 

In an era of weak trade unions and anti-union laws, only minimum wage legislation stops wages from falling further. 

This same legislation, by placing a floor under UK wages, also acts as a pull on immigration from countries where wage rates are lower.

Cut off free movement and this surplus disappears. 

This would be replaced by a managed system of immigration, similar to that practised by Australia where organisations have to justify the recruitment of staff from abroad, demonstrating that they have tried to recruit locally first.

Of course, what is bad for wage earners is good news for businesses.

Wearing his business hat, Lord Rose would have seen wage rises as a bad thing, hence his warning.  

I suspect his name was mud in those circles for letting the cat out of the bag when he made that statement.

Staying in the EU will ensure UK wage levels will remain stagnant.

People needing homes are currently faced

with ever-increasing house prices or rents. 

Although there are many reasons for this, EU migration exacerbates it.

So, unless you are already a homeowner, you will find a greater proportion of your income going towards housing costs. 

Your children and their children will increasingly struggle to find housing they can afford. 

Because wages won’t increase, the government’s benefits bill will rise as, unless it is prepared to tolerate an increase in homelessness or longer queues at food banks, it will need to provide more support to working families who cannot earn enough in work to cover their basic household bills. 

This will need to be funded by increased taxes.

I could go on about how the ready availability of skills from the EU means the UK government and businesses are under no pressure to invest in training UK citizens. 

Low wages mean there is no need to invest to increase productivity.

Productivity in the UK is currently low so, before you ask how businesses will afford higher wages, that is how. 

How, through in-work benefits, you are, via taxes, subsidising businesses who pay their workers below a living wage.

This is not speculation.  These are current trends that will never be reversed by remaining in the EU.

Of course, while all this is going on, the economy will be growing and businesses will be thriving. 

However, fewer and fewer UK citizens will be enjoying the benefits.

For these reasons I will be voting to leave the EU. 

– Richard Wooller, Bream.