Emmerich states the case for Brin

“IT IS all about uncertainty,” Manchester economist Mike Emmerich says of the upcoming European Union referendum.

He’s not talking about uncertainty around the country’s position in the run up to referendum day on June 23 but of what happens next if the country votes to exit the EU.

Emmerich was the chief executive of Manchester think tank New Economy in Manchester for more than eight years and a driving force behind the Greater Manchester devolution deal.

He founded Metro Dynamics a year ago, to help other city regions and local authorities with their own devolution agendas.

Speaking at a Budget event hosted by accountancy firm Mazars he said: “For my money the long uncertainty of being on our own, unable to set the rules for of a series of bodies to which we will still have to adhere one way or another, of not being a full player in a world where all the rules are being made by trading blocs in America, in the Far East, and in Europe. I think that is a crazy place for us to be.”

Greater Manchester specifically would find itself economically worse off if Britain left the EU, because it would mean the end of those European funding pots the city region can access, according to Emmerich.

He said: “Greater Manchester is a net drain on the public purse – we as an economy are in debt to the country by about £5bn a year. And the European programme that we [Manchester] get by virtue of being a member of the EU comes to about £5bn.”

He admitted that “this country has never loved the European Union” and that in net cash terms Britain as a whole is “a handful of billions” worse off being in Europe, adding that in the context of the British economy that “doesn’t add up to very much”.

Emmerich concluded: “Even if you don’t like the idea of the European Union, I think our economic interests are best served by voting to stay in.”