My mother would have described Andrew Percy, MP for Goole, as "dim as a Toc H lamp". The fool from Goole has been submitting written questions on foreign direct investment (FDI) and what the government was doing to encourage it (HERE) and (HERE). There is a certain almost delicious irony to him asking the government such a question.
In the run up to the vote in 2016 the government, or more accurately, the Treasury, produced a long and comprehensive document about the impact of Brexit on the economy. The leave side and, I assume Mr Percy, condemned it as scaremongering and urged people to ignore it and vote to leave the EU.
The Treasury document (HERE) contains hundreds of references to FDI. I would point Andrew Percy to these particular ones:
Almost three quarters of foreign investors cite access to the European market as a reason for their investment in the UK. (page 9)
The UK is the top European destination for inward FDI (page 16)
EU member states are a significant source of FDI into the UK. In 2014, almost half of the total stock of inward FDI in the UK was held by EU investors (page 47)
So, three quarters of FDI comes from companies and people who cite membership of the EU as a reason for their investment. And in 2014 almost half the FDI into the UK came from the EU.
We have now voted to leave, urged on by Andrew Percy, and he is now worried about where future FDI is going to come from. Having made ourselves less attractive as a destination for FDI he wants others to go out and overcome the handicap he helped to create and will no doubt be at the front of the mob when it doesn't materialise, blaming everyone but himself.
