Tomorrow will see thousands of people in borough go to the polls to cast their vote on whether England should remain or leave the European Union.
With one day left to make your decision, the Express has asked politicians, business leaders and community members from the town if they think the UK should stay or go – and why.
Hundreds of different national polls have been commissioned to track voters’ intentions, with the majority showing a close race between the two sides, leading many pollsters to predict the vote will go down to the wire.
Hustings have already been held around Macclesfield as voters make what has been deemed ‘the most important political decision of a generation’.
Around 60 people attended the debate hosted by Hope in North East Cheshire at Macclesfield Methodist church.
Panel members for remaining were Karen Bradley, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands and Elizabeth Jewkes, chairman of the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum.
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Tony Homewood, Conservative party member and UKIP member Jacqueline Smith spoke for leaving.
Macclesfield MP David Rutley says he believes the future of the UK would be best served by remaining in the EU.
He said: “This has been one of the most difficult decisions I have made since becoming a MP. There are legitimate
arguments on both sides of the debate. However, for me, the economic arguments for continuing to be part of the EU have been the main factor in making my decision.”
The town’s former MP, Sir Nicholas Winterton, says he is very firmly in the Brexit camp.
He said: “I am totally committed to the leave campaign and I have very strong views.
“The EU is highly bureaucratic, which is profoundly undemocratic. We would lose our sovereignty, cultural identity and centuries old traditions.”
Polls will be open from 7am until 10pm on Thursday, June 23.
The votes will be counted as soon as the polls close at 10pm. Local results will be declared as each count is completed across 382 centres around the UK.
The final result is expected to be announced at Manchester Town Hall after 4am.
For more information about voting in the EU referendum and a full list of polling stations go to aboutmyvote.co.uk.
Vote remain:
David Rutley, Macclesfield MP
It has not been an easy choice for me, but the strong economic arguments have driven my decision to vote “remain”.
Prior to becoming an MP, I worked for 20 years as a senior executive with international companies and learned first-hand how important access to the EU Single Market is for the UK’s economy.
I recognise that the EU is not perfect and further reform is required. However, while other options to access the EU’s markets would, in time, be negotiated if there is a vote to leave, this would not be granted freely and the outcome is not clear.
We do know, though, that key industries vital to our economy want us to stay in the EU. AstraZeneca has around 3,000 highly skilled staff based in Macclesfield and was a leading signatory of a recent letter from the life-science sector supporting a remain vote.
Small businesses and consumers benefit from the single market too.
This is an important decision for the country.
Janet Jackson, Labour councillor for Macclesfield Central
Within the EU we will continue to have protection for workers’ rights and conditions including paid maternity and paternity leave, four weeks paid holiday and protection for part time and agency workers.
Working together with the EU we can better protect our nation from climate change, reducing pollution and improving air and water quality.
The EU is a massive trading area providing great opportunities for our businesses and economy, why would we turn our back on Europe? We can still continue to trade with the rest of the world.
We have had peace
on the continent since the 1940s, brought about by co-operating and working with the other countries of Europe.
I value our safety and security. Terrorism, crime, climate change, migration do not respect borders. They all require joined up thinking and co-operation from nations working together, not operating in isolation and acting apart.
The world is changing fast and the EU has to change with it. Britain needs to be at the front, leading the charge for reform. This means staying in and fighting our corner.
We’re a big nation who helps make the rules, not a small country looking in from the outside.
Dr Mike Sewart, Conservative Councillor for Poynton West and Adlington
It’s close but my prejudices as an oldie against the mass immigration we are experiencing is not on the whole shared by younger people, the citizens of the future.
Though I would like to see immigration reduced, I am more concerned with that from places such as Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria than I am from the other EU countries.
Immigration aside, just about every neutral non politico comes down on the side of saying that Brexit will damage our economy. That will affect younger people.
I do not want to imperil their future because of my prejudices therefore my head overrules my heart in voting stay.
Lesley Smetham, Conservative Councillor for Gawsworth
There is greater opportunity to influence the decision-making process from the inside. We’ve prospered as members and we should not put our current recovery at risk.
One of the original intentions of EU membership was to stop wars between European countries, this has been successful.
People escaping from war torn countries are having an impact on migration, this would happen whether we are within the EU or outside it and is a separate issue.
When our neighbour’s lives are improved we all benefit.
The world is getting smaller: businesses are becoming more multi-national and borders are increasingly less relevant. Pollution knows no barriers. Free movement of those in the EU is preferable.
Choice of where to live in retirement or where to work may be reduced if we leave.
We have to work together.
Richard Waston, secretary of Macclesfield Labour Party
Scientific, cultural and technical collaboration have all been great dividends from membership of the EU, which has also provided important grants to our needy regions.
Legislation on workers’ rights is a considerable achievement for the European Union.
The European Parliament operates consensually, which I prefer, rather than adversarially as ours does, although the EU Parliament should have more powers and the Council of Ministers less.
Immigration within the EU should be discussed calmly recognising that our population density is four times that of France but also recognising immigration’s many benefits.
If we left the EU and joined another large trading block we would still be faced with a requirement to allow free movement of labour, so this issue has to be solved by negotiation.
We are part of Europe culturally and historically and the UK would benefit even more if we had a more positive approach towards the EU to strengthen collaboration.
Councillor Andrew Haldane, chairman of Macclesfield Liberal Democrats
A vote to leave the EU would be like driving a hovercraft flat out over an economic cliff edge, hoping we miss the rocks at the bottom, avoid drowning and sail off into the sunset pretending that Britannia once more rules the waves.
Like many of you, and local AstraZeneca employees looking anxiously over their shoulders at a similar Swedish factory, my children’s livelihoods depend on global companies trading with Europe from a UK base.
An independent Scotland, remaining in the EU, should do very nicely at our expense.
If Boris’ power grab trashes our economy, we leave and suffer, his family remain wealthy. We get more back from EU funded research than we pay in.
Premier League science often requires multinational teams and we also gain 100 per cent of the cutting edge knowledge from each project we have a stake in, helping our small country stay near the top of the hi-tech world.
Much EU funding that we don’t get back is building stronger economies on Russia’s borders so their peoples will have more jobs back home and Putin can’t stir up discontent.
That is safer and cheaper than an arms race.
Calling all this Project Fear insults our intelligence.
Vote Leave:
Adrian Howard, former UKIP Candidate for Macclesfield
In this EU referendum the immigration argument is a simple one of supply and demand, an over supply of any product, service or in this case people will force down wages and the greatest pressure falls on the lowest paid. Where shortages exist, where skills are in short supply wages will rise, this is indisputable.
Current annual EU net immigration is 184,000, creating an over supply of workers and greater competition for British people’s jobs here, increased pressure on our wages, promotion opportunities, GP appointments, NHS services and shortages of other public services.
The same competition is being imported for our children, for their school places, their GP and hospital appointments, future training and job opportunities. Where skill shortages exist we must train our own people first not rush to import ready made employees, when our young people are crying out for nurse training we must train them. We cannot accept open borders forever and never ending competition, British people and our children must come first. We must vote to Leave the EU on June 23.
Amanda Stott, Bollington First councillor on Cheshire East Council
I support Vote Leave. Why?
The original common market was a good idea but what is not right is the EU’s ability to impose legislation on us that may not be appropriate, or wanted.
Classic example: There was a sweet trolley and cheeseboard in my hotel. European legislation stated that these were no longer hygienic and should be refrigerated. Being law abiding citizens we purchased the equipment.
Later on that year I was travelling in France and was presented with a very ripe cheeseboard at dinner. I asked the waiter why he was allowed to do this when European rules say we couldn’t. His response? ‘Pah’ accompanied by a Gaelic shrug of his shoulders!
The UK has a spirit of following rules but when the rest of the team don’t share the philosophy it makes for an unbalanced and, mainly, unworkable liaison.
Other issues are immigration; trade deals; farmers’ CAP; Human Rights Act; bailouts of other members; failure to produce audited accounts; and worldwide trade – these are already being debated extensively.
I understand that if the Brexit campaign is successful they will ban the export of live animals – that definitely gets my vote!
Brad Snelling, promoter of Macclesfield’s Dead Good Day Out and Winterfest festivals
We are not voting to leave Europe. We are voting to leave a political union which is gradually becoming the United States of Europe.
Is this a good thing? When we voted to become part of the EEC it was all about ‘free trade’. Now we have an unelected president of the European Union among other things.
Does anyone really believe that a vote to leave Europe would spell the end for Britain? We are the fifth largest economy in the world.
Short term, while trade negotiations take place, may see this change but long term we would be free to trade with whomever we see fit and who would best benefit the UK, not France or Germany. We would still be a member of the G7.
I’ve heard and read countless scaremongering articles about our security being at risk. The last time I looked, we were (and still are) a permanent member of NATO and one of only nine countries to possess a nuclear arsenal. NATO are obliged to assist should we ever require it. We are and would remain a member of Interpol, along with the other 190 members so we would still be sharing intelligence which would assist security in the UK.
None of the above will cease in the event of a vote to leave.
The question is really about whether or not the people of the United Kingdom have the strength to believe that we will be just fine without the political strings attached to being a member of the European Union. I believe we do have that strength, which is why I am voting out on June 23.
Charles Davies, chairman of UKIP Macclesfield branch
I am a 69-year-old retired professional engineer and have been distrustful of the EU (Common Market) since it first became a subject for discussion in the 1960s, although I did vote to remain in the 1975 referendum because I believed, and still do, in close trading links with our friends in Europe.
It was when the truth came out in 2001, under the 30-year rule, that I realised that the EU is an anti democratic authoritarian regime and that I had been lied to by successive governments.
I regard this referendum as the last chance for the people of our country to regain our nationality, sovereignty and democracy and the manner that the government has conducted itself as absolutely appalling.
No people of a democratic nation should be treated in
this contemptuous manner by a government and establishment that have consistently lied through their teeth.
If, as I hope, the people vote to leave the EU, there has got to be a reckoning with Messrs Cameron and Osborne removed from parliament and steps taken to prevent such abuses being carried out ever again.
