TEN reasons why I shall vote to remain in the EU:

1. The economy: Brexit would have a severely negative impact on the economy. To suggest that all the experts are engaged in some EU-inspired conspiracy is an insult to voters’ intelligence.

2. Investment and jobs would suffer from Brexit. Tarifffree access to the EU’s single market of 500m is a major incentive for companies to invest in the UK.

3. Preserving the United KIngdom: I’m proud to be Yorkshire-born, English, British and European. Brexit would almost certainly lead to a second Scottish independence referendum. Forced to choose between a UK outside the EU and an independent Scotland that could apply for EU membership, it would not be surprising if a majority of Scottish voters opted for independence.

4. EU immigrants pay on average £1.34 in tax revenue for every £1 of cost in public services. Their presence has not lead to significant job losses or wage cutting, and they enhance rather than undermine public services such as the NHS and social care. Any further EU enlargement can be vetoed by any member state.

5. EU trade agreements facilitate our trade with more than 50 countries.

Without such agreements, British exporters would face tariffs of up to 20 per cent on key products such as whiskey, cars, machine tools and textiles.

6. Both Norway and Switzerland pay into the EU budget and have to accept EU rules and regulations.

Anyone who believes that the EU would bend over backwards to give us an advantageous trade deal is deluded.

7. The £350m a week “cost” of the EU is a grotesque misrepresentation.

It takes no account of the UK’s hard-earned rebate or of agricultural payments, regional development grants, research grants and other EU payments to the UK. The real net cost is around £140m.

8. Claims about sovereignty and taking back control are misplaced.

North Korea is the only nation on earth which has undiluted sovereignty.

In the 21st Century, splendid isolation would leave us weaker, not stronger.

9. EU-wide collaboration is our best hope for tackling major issues which do not respect national borders: terrorism, drug-trafficking, people-trafficking, climate change and damage to the environment, internet crime and multinational companies seeking to avoid tax.

10. The EU has helped unite east and west Europe. Its role in helping to end dictatorships both in the west (Spain, Portugal, Greece) and in the east (countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union) should be recognised and celebrated. Brexit would weaken both the UK and the EU.

I know that the EU is not perfect.

For six years in the 1990s, I was a UK representative on one of the EU Council’s Working Groups. One country on its own can achieve very little, however strong its arguments.

The answer is to build alliances, issue by issue, and to work constructively with those member states that share our objectives – and they do exist. This requires time, effort and careful, dogged diplomacy. It’s not easy; but it can be done.

Tony Rossiter, West Burton, Leyburn