A Letter to Sarah Newton MP About Tuesday's Brexit Vote

This the text of a letter I've written today to our MP, Sarah Newton, ahead of the "meaningful vote" on Brexit on Tuesday. I hope it doesn't come across as being too smug and boastful. There are a million reasons why I think Brexit is a horrifically bad idea for the UK, but to have a chance of influencing our Tory MP I thought I'd better focus on the economic benefits that EU membership has helped me bring to her constituency here.

I can't imagine it'll hold any sway at all, but I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't at least try.

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Dear Sarah,

I am writing as one of your constituents and as the leader of a business employing 16 (soon to be 17) people in your constituency. I want to urge you not to vote for the proposed Brexit deal in the Parliamentary vote on Tuesday.

Now that it seems clear that there are other ways forward, including a second referendum on the deal, and the revocation of Article 50, I would ask you to please consider very carefully what the best outcome would be for residents and businesses in Truro and Falmouth.

My view is that there can be no better outcome for Truro and Falmouth than for the UK to remain in the EU if we possibly can.

I started Radix Communications Ltd in Falmouth in 2007 and since then it has grown to employ 16 people, now in Penryn. Over that time the business has generated very nearly £4m in revenue, almost all of which has come into your constituency from outside of Cornwall.

The jobs I have created here are skilled, permanent and full-time jobs, with an average salary above £30k. I have employed talented local residents and graduates who would otherwise have had to leave Cornwall to forge a rewarding career.

I have brought a new industry sector (enterprise technology copywriting) to Cornwall and put Cornwall on the map as a global centre of excellence for that particular service.

We have a client base that spans the globe, from Brisbane to Seattle. We are producing work every day for multinational technology brands like Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and Sage.

We are doing all of this in Penryn and we are proud to be based here and to be contributing to the local economy and community here.

I’m saying all of this not to boast, but because this business categorically would not exist today if it weren’t for the support of the many EU-funded programmes that we have had access to over the years.

When I lacked the confidence to hire people, I found it through the Enterprising Women programme run in Truro in 2011 by YTKO.

When our business hit a rough patch in 2013, it was advice from Oxford Innovation’s Grow Cornwall programme that enabled us to keep the jobs we’d created, stabilise the business and start growing again.

Whenever we have needed to grow our team, Unlocking Potential has been there to help us find, interview and subsidise new, talented recruits.

I am sure you know that extraordinarily few startup businesses survive through to 10+ years and are still growing at that stage. Radix is one of the lucky few, and we owe our survival and growth in large part to the EU’s Objective One and Convergence programmes.

Your vote for the proposed Brexit deal on Tuesday will deny that support to the businesses starting up today and in the future in Truro and Falmouth. They will have it tougher than we have, and many will not survive. That means the future holds fewer jobs, less money and more hardship for this constituency. Please think about that when you vote on Tuesday.

Lastly I’d like to remind you that Truro and Falmouth voted to Remain in 2016. I have no doubt that your constituents would vote the same way today. I urge you, as our elected representative, to do the right thing by your constituency and vote against the proposed Brexit deal, so that Truro and Falmouth – and the country as a whole – can have another chance to vote on the best way forward.

Many thanks,

Fiona