Polly Toynbee (Rachel Reeves is all about growth. So why won’t she admit that Brexit is its worst enemy?, 25 March) demonstrates conclusively how much self-inflicted economic damage the UK is suffering from Brexit. She could also have mentioned the critical loss of investment from the EU’s long-term financing bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB).
During the UK’s EU membership, the EIB invested some £150bn in mainly infrastructure projects in the UK, representing actual investment of two to three times that amount, taking account of the EIB’s ability to attract other long-term co-financers. This key stream of investment and growth ceased with Brexit, and the successor regional investment banks established by the government have not come remotely near to replacing the EIB’s level of finance. If, as Toynbee urges, the government were bold enough to face down the Brexiters, there would be at least an opportunity to renegotiate access to EIB finance. No other source of significant investment is in prospect.
Brian Unwin
President, European Investment Bank, 1993-2000
• Polly Toynbee asserts that leaving the EU has cost the country “huge sums”. This may or may not be true. But I do remember being told by the same people that voting to leave would crush the economy and cause the pound to plummet, turning sterling into junk.
Immediately after the BBC projected a leave win on referendum night, the pound did dive, to a chorus of “I told you so” from politicians and pundits. But, like a phoenix, it soon rose up as the markets and people across the world realised that there is something to be said for independence and national sovereignty.
If one is to follow Toynbee’s logic, the Canadians better agree to be the 51st state of the US if they are to avoid their economy wrecked by tariffs from across their southern border. But Canadians know that independence and sovereignty cannot be weighed against pounds and pence; they are priceless.
Fawzi Ibrahim
National officer, Trade Unions Against the EU
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
