The charity leaders’ network ACEVO represents a diversity of views that cover both the Remain and Vote Leave camps. But with £500 million at stake over the remainder of this decade it is clear that the Brexit lobby would need to make two key pledges to satisfy very real concerns: not least the potential loss of European funding for social causes and the regulatory frameworks that protect of the vulnerable. That is why ACEVO today is calling on Vote Leave to satisfy two key conditions:
- Brexit campaigners, Vote Leave in particular, will need to guarantee to replace the loss of £200 million a year that leaving Europe would entail.
- In the event of success Vote Leave would need to guarantee an immediate emergency summit with ACEVO members to discuss key matters of regulation eg concerning child welfare, environmental protection and employees rights.
Charity leaders, workers, volunteers will all make their own individual decisions on remaining or leaving. Some will vote to leave, some to stay because those associated with charities rightly represent the range of the nation’s opinions and creeds.
There are progressive arguments for both sides of the question but even if the progressive argument for Brexit were stronger, the pragmatic reality is that communities will suffer through the loss of European Social Funding and the curtailing of international regulatory protections.
This is why ACEVO’s new Chief Executive Asheem Singh is personally writing to both Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove to seek their assurances on the key pledges being sought by ACEVO.
Commenting Asheem Singh said:
“No matter how much one may sympathise with the romance of a Brexit position, the risk to our communities is considerable. Whatever our political views we must be pragmatic and consider the very real potential for upheaval on the ground. For Brexit to be a truly sustainable position Vote Leave must make the promises sought by ACEVO to redress these gaps and I urge them to do so immediately.”
