Agenda item

That this Council:-

(a)       recognises that, last June, the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union;

(b)       however, regrets that the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP, has chosen the hardest and most divisive form of Brexit, choosing to take us out of the Single Market before she has even begun negotiations;

(c)        believes that leaving the Single Market was not on the ballot paper in the referendum and that it is a political choice made by this Government;

(d)       believes that membership of the Single Market is vital for the British economy and for the jobs of millions of British people;

(e)       condemns the Government for failing to guarantee the rights of 3 million EU citizens already living and working in the UK, which includes over 13,000 people in Sheffield;

(f)        believes that EU citizens need to be given clarity on where they stand, as do UK citizens resident elsewhere in the EU and that it is shameful that the Government have left them in limbo, lining them up to be used as bargaining chips in the forthcoming negotiations;

(g)       notes that there is almost 1000 NHS workers in Sheffield who are EU citizens, and that the NHS is reliant on skilled migrant labour from the EU and beyond, and is therefore deeply concerned by the 68 per cent increase in EU nurses handing in their resignations in 2016, compared to 2015;

(h)       notes that the Spring budget confirms just how damaging this Government's “Hard Brexit” plans are to Britain’s public finances, with the UK now forecast to borrow an extra £100bn over the next 6 years than was expected before the referendum;

(i)         regrets that a further £60bn is to be stashed away by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. Phillip Hammond MP, to mitigate the effects of a “Hard Brexit” and believes this money could have been better spent on public services, such as health and care services and education;

(j)         further regrets that Labour MPs and Lords, including many local figures, have followed the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP’s lead and failed to oppose the Government’s “Hard Brexit” plans, allowing the Government’s Brexit Bill to pass through Parliament unamended without any guarantees for EU citizens in the UK or on the UK’s membership of the single market; and

(k)        supports the Liberal Democrats policy to hold a referendum on the final Brexit deal and believes that the people should have the final say over the Brexit deal, rather than just politicians in Westminster.