{"id":70882,"date":"2016-05-24T17:03:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T17:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=8f31975b01f29ade9f36706d22285582"},"modified":"2016-05-24T17:03:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T17:03:46","slug":"speech-pm-speech-at-easyjet-on-why-the-uk-should-stay-in-a-reformed-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=70882","title":{"rendered":"Speech: PM speech at easyJet on why the UK should stay in a reformed EU"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thank you, it\u2019s great to be here with you here in Luton, and I am a proud easyJet passenger. You\u2019ve flown me actually all over Europe: Portugal, Majorca, France, Spain, and almost always on time, although I have to admit that I\u2019m not always on time. Actually, as I drove in here this morning, I remember once when I missed a flight altogether and had a lovely night in the Ibis hotel on the way into the airport. So I\u2019ve let you down more often than you\u2019ve let me down.<\/p>\n

But it is actually, funnily enough, interesting point: very few people have I stopped on the street to tell them that I think that they\u2019ve done an amazing thing, but actually your founder is one of them. I did do that once, because I think easyJet was a fantastic creation. And today, with whatever it is: 800 routes, 70 million passengers, supporting around 10,000 jobs in our country, this is a fantastic great British success story. So it is a pleasure to be here, talking to you about this vital issue and taking your questions.<\/p>\n

Because on 23 June, we\u2019ve got to make a really big decision for the future of our country. General elections are important, of course I believe that, but actually I think this is more important than a general election. If you don\u2019t like the result of a general election, 5 years later you can make a different decision and have a different team running the country. Obviously not something I\u2019m looking forward to, but nonetheless that\u2019s the way the system works.<\/p>\n

But this is a really big choice about Britain, and I\u2019m arguing very clearly that we are safer if we stay in, because we can fight terrorism better if we\u2019re part of this team. I think we\u2019ll be stronger, because I think Britain gains from being in these organisations rather than losing by being in them. But crucially, I think we\u2019ll be better off. And it\u2019s not a complicated argument to make. It\u2019s because we\u2019re part of a market of 500 million people; the biggest single market anywhere in the world. And that is good for jobs, it\u2019s good for companies, it\u2019s good for investment, it brings businesses here to Britain. It means great businesses like this one can expand throughout the single market. It\u2019s good for our economy, and so if we were to leave, it would be bad for our economy. It would mean less growth, it would mean fewer jobs, it would mean higher prices. It would mean, as we set out yesterday, a recession for our economy. So we\u2019re better off if we stay in this organisation.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not a static thing, because of course the single market is still expanding. It\u2019s good we\u2019ve got a single market in aviation; that has massively helped your business. I can remember days, I\u2019m old enough to remember, when flying off on holiday meant getting on a sort of state owned aeroplane and going to a state owned airport in another country, and paying a very high price for it. And as Carolyn has said, prices have come down 40% since the single market has come about, and since the radical transformation that companies like easyJet have brought about.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m quite convinced that when it comes to this economic argument, we are better off if we stay in and we\u2019re worse off if we leave. And as I said, it\u2019s not static, because the single market is going to go into energy, it\u2019s going to go into digital, where we\u2019re a real leader, and it\u2019s going to go further into services industries, which actually make up 80% of our economy. So for those reasons I think we\u2019ll be better off.<\/p>\n

And today we\u2019re talking about some quite specific things, some quite \u2018retail\u2019 things, if you like, which is what would happen to the cost of a holiday if we were to leave. If we were to leave, and the pound were to fall, which is what most people expect and what the Treasury forecast, that would put up the cost of a typical holiday for a family of 4 to a European destination by \u00a3230<\/a>. It could, as Carolyn has said, put up actually the cost of air travel, because if you\u2019re outside the single market, which is what those who want us to leave think, then you\u2019d face all sorts of bureaucracy and restrictions that you don\u2019t face today.<\/p>\n

Another very retail thing that is happening in Europe, and there are a few people with mobile phones right now \u2013 don\u2019t worry, film away, this is all live anyway. We\u2019re abolishing roaming charges in the European Union.<\/a> It\u2019s one of the most annoying things: you\u2019re on holiday, you use your mobile phone, you get an enormous bill. Getting rid of roaming charges could mean on a 10 minute call back to the UK, you\u2019re saving almost \u00a34 on that 10 minute call. So I think there\u2019s some very strong retail arguments about the cost of a holiday, the cost of food, the cost of using your phone, for staying in the European Union.<\/p>\n

Now, before I take your questions, I just want to make one other argument, because I think in this debate it\u2019s very important to talk about the specifics, and we have, about jobs and prices and costs of holidays and costs of phone calls. But there is also, in my view, a bigger argument. I don\u2019t believe those people who say, \u2018Well, my head says we ought to stay in the European Union but my heart says somehow, we would be a prouder and more patriotic country if we were outside.\u2019 I don\u2019t think that is right. I think this is an amazing country. We are the fifth biggest economy in the world. We\u2019ve done great things in this world. We\u2019re a very interconnected country. What happens on the other side of the world matters to us. We care about tackling climate change; we care about trying to alleviate poverty in Africa; we know we need to have the world\u2019s trade lanes open for British business and enterprise. And I absolutely believe, if you want a big, bold, strong United Kingdom, then you want to be in organisations like a reformed European Union, rather than outside of them. Britain is part of the G7, we\u2019re part of the G20, we\u2019re part of NATO, which helps to keep our defences strong. We are a very important part of the Commonwealth, which brings about a third of humanity together in one organisation. And we\u2019re members of the European Union. Being in these organisations doesn\u2019t diminish our standing and our strength in the world, in my view. It enhances it. So I think the big, bold, patriotic case is to stay in a reformed European Union, to fight for the sort of world that we want, rather than to stand back and be on the outside.<\/p>\n

And in a way, that\u2019s sort of what easyJet has done. Here you are, a British based business, but a business that has decided to take on the world in terms of being competitive, running routes all over Europe and beyond, and recognising that is in your interests, your passengers\u2019 interests, your shareholders\u2019 interests, all the people in this room\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s my argument about Britain: let\u2019s be the big, bold strong Britain inside the reformed European Union rather than voting to leave, and that\u2019s the case I\u2019m going to make every day between now and 23 June, with just under a month to go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Cameron spoke at easyJet in Luton on the reasons for staying in the EU and implications on travel costs if the UK were to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}