We all share a responsibility to keep hate and violence out of our democracy - and whichever side you end up on in debates, arguably the most important thing is to turn up and vote. Following the tragedy of Jo Cox’s death last week, this is even more pertinent.
It is my belief that the UK's best days lie ahead of us. The facts are on our side. We have a stunning future ahead of us if we have the self-belief to vote Leave on June 23. That means believing the UK’s future is truly bright, that the prospects for our children and grandchildren outside the EU have never been better. As a mother, I want my children to have every opportunity to travel, to enjoy rewarding careers, to take part in the next stage in the growth of what can become the most successful country anywhere - creative, fair, and open to everything the world has to offer.
This referendum is finally allowing the people of Britain to decide who is in charge of their country. It is a fantastic opportunity to achieve our full potential by taking back control of our democracy and our laws. By leaving, we will be able to call time on the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels whose main interest is taking over power for themselves.
For years, governments of all parties have given those powers up time and again without the people ever being given a say. It has now got to the point where six in every 10 of our laws are written by the EU.
Those rules are doing huge damage to Britain and British jobs, imposing £600m a week of costs. Entrepreneurs and small businesses bear the brunt. They could be sprinting forward, creating even more new opportunities for our young people if Brussels was not holding them back.
If we vote to leave the EU and take back control, it will be up to us to design the laws and the free trade agreements with the rest of the world that will be what our economy needs, not 27 other very different countries.
Leaving is the optimistic move for our young people. The level of immigration into Britain is making it harder for them to afford a home, for local authorities to find enough places for the growing school population, and cheap labour is forcing wages down. My family moved to Britain to escape persecution in Idi Amin’s Uganda and I’ll always be someone who thinks we should be a welcoming country to those in need. But because we are legally required to keep our borders open to all EU migration, there is little we can do to reduce the pressure from people who do not urgently need to move here. We will always want skilled people such as doctors and talented entrepreneurs to come to Britain, so we should move to an Australian points system that lets us decide who is allowed to come here. That is only possible outside the EU.
I also want to leave because we can make much better use of the £10 billion net that Brussels takes from Britain every year. The Leave campaign has proposed putting £100 million extra into the NHS every week. We could afford things like the new anti-breast cancer and anti-HIV drugs that are currently so hard for the cash-strapped NHS to afford. These will be decisions for parliament, but another way we can use the money would be to abolish VAT on pensioners’ gas and electricity bills. The EU and its judges, who are the ultimate arbiters of our tax system for now, forbid us from cutting this tax, which hits those on low incomes the hardest.
If we don't leave, we risk being sucked into the disaster of the Eurozone, being told to cough up either to rescue the countries left destitute by the currency’s survival or sweep up the mess if it collapses.
The crisis has left millions of Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians unemployed. It is worst for the young - more than half of them are jobless in Greece. This crisis has accurately been described as “the economic crime of modern times”.
Staying is far from being the safe option its supporters claim. My great concern is that a Remain vote will mean Europe thinking we are fully signed up to whatever they dream up next.
We are better off out. The fastest growing economies are all outside the EU and building strong ties with them is the surest way of my children being able to get good jobs in the years to come. I’m voting for them next Thursday and I’m voting to Leave. I hope you’ll do the same.
Guest posts
EU referendum guest post: Priti Patel – "We are better off out"
MumsnetGuestPosts · 20/06/2016 13:23
Firstly, I'm offended you'd bring Jo Cox, an proactive Remain supporter, into this. Remain have done nothing but exploit this, far more so than the Leave campaign.
Plenty of prominent figures on both sides. Let me know if you would like a list.
you're admitting that the price of my house is likely to decline. If our children are ever to get on the housing ladder, prices must fall. This is a good thing. One might even suggest it is selfish to want house prices to continue rising.
your campaign is covertly xenophobic, racist Oh please, this has been discussed time and time again. It is not racist to have concerns over the sheer numbers of people coming here. It is realistic and pragmatic.
and lead by individuals who are clearly about political ambition and ego. Not like Cameron, Osborne, Brown, Blair or Mandelson then? 
With regards to your last point, yes we need immigration. Has anyone suggested we close our doors to the entire world? No, thought not. We need to control and adjust immigration to suit our needs.
Voting Remain is insane and very short-sighted.
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