Brexit Voices: Leaving the EU won’t return halcyon days that never existed

There is a view among some of those campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union that an exit would result in a return to an idyllic version of history with large-scale industrial employment, according to Conor McGinn. It is a version of history he says never existed in the first place.

"What UKIP and a large proportion of those for Brexit will say to people is 'If we leave the EU, it will go back to the way it was [AND]we'll have 30,000 people in the glass factory again, we'll reopen the pits'. The halcyon days that in truth never existed will all come back," says the MP for St Helens North in Merseyside, an area where the glass and mining industries were once major employers.

“What I say to people is they aren’t and nothing that anyone does can bring them back because the world has changed. The world has changed irrevocably but what you won’t get from leaving a large trading block like the EU is any chance to develop economically.”

McGinn (31) is a unique figure in Westminster. From South Armagh and the son of a former Sinn Féin councillor, he won the St Helens North seat in the last election for Labour.

After becoming involved with the party when he moved to London for college aged 18, he worked with Labour's shadow Northern Ireland spokesman, Vernon Coaker, as his special adviser and is a well-known figure amongst the Irish community in Britain.

Irish community

The view amongst the majority of the Irish community - more than 400,000 people identified themselves as Irish born in the last UK census in 2011 - is that the country should remain in the EU, according to McGinn. There is a substantial number, however, who are in favour of an exit.

“I would say there is a signifiant minority who would not be overly exercised if the UK left the EU and I would describe them as those who are the most integrated here, who have been here the longest, who had families and had children here and who very much feel part of British society and the reference to Ireland would always be home but it is now more for holidays,” he says.

“The people who are most hostile about the prospect of Britain leaving the EU are a younger generation who see the freedom of movement and labour that it gives them, who have almost a hybrid existence. I had that myself and to a degree still do. You can be home for family occasions, for gaelic football games - my family travel here - and in the world of business especially, people who work in financial services or property see the ability for Ireland and the UK to operate almost as one as they do.”

McGinn describes himself as a left-of-centre "Atlanticist", who supports Nato and is a strong advocate for the EU.

“Those that want to leave the EU, what would they say to people about maternity leave? About protection at work? About the fact that over a series of decades dozens if not hundreds of men lost their lives working in terrible conditions in coal mines and in glass factories and in manufacturing and there has to be a certain standard now that protects people at work? The idea that we can go back to some uncomplicated simplistic Britain that is untainted and untouched by the outside world is not true.”

Peace process

Amongst the benefits of EU membership for both Britain and Ireland has been its role in the peace process and eventually the Belfast (Good Friday Agreement), he said. “There is a very strong strain of conservatism and unionism that dismisses the role of the European Union in the peace process and in building relations between Britain and Ireland whereas I think it was absolutely critical. I think the relationship within the EU between the UK and Ireland is a relationship of equals and good neighbours and two states which look to each other for co-operation and mutual support within a political and economic context of the EU rather than against each other.”

In St Helens, his constituents are pragmatic, McGinn says, and he argues an involvement in Europe is necessary to move the north-west of England away from an economy reliant on the public sector. "They have no love for what they see as a political elite in Brussels. Look, they have no love for what they see as a political elite in Liverpool, never mind London," he adds.

“I fundamentally believe that the facts bear out that for my constituency in the north west is better for being in the EU than not.”