This week we spoke to Andrew Smith, UKIP’s parliamentary candidate for Epping Forest, who has a degree in economics and statistics and is qualified as a chartered accountant.

“The referendum ballot paper gives two choices: Leave or Remain.

Neither offers the status quo.

If we Leave we can choose to a large degree what we want to retain and what to change or cancel from existing laws and rules of the EU through the usual democratic methods of voting. Our democracy may be imperfect but at least we have it – the EU is not capable of reform.

If we Remain we face ever more political integration, ever more costs and ever more reduction in the powers of our own parliament. Ever more Regulations and Directives. Ever more Euro bail-outs which are bound to affect us. 

The EU is not Europe. Europe is made up of over 50 nations with over 60 separate co-cultural regions. It has been the source of great advances over the centuries in science, technology, literature, music, art and painting. No one wants to abandon that aspect of Europe but we want also to share in the rest of the world and not be inward looking to a ring-fenced EU: all vanilla, beige and boringly the same.

We will not be “turning our backs on Europe” but we want the sort of grown up relationship which the other 150 nations in the world have with each other and with the EU. We should not worry about appearing to be the first to leave a very bad party – rest assured, others will follow us out of the EU.

We do not need the EU or the Single Market in order to trade with the EU. We have a large and growing trade deficit with the EU but a surplus with every other continent on earth, save Antarctica! Just look at the volume of trade China and others do from outside the EU. The Single Market is not a walled garden, it is not a magical place but the name of a customs union which other nations are able to penetrate with ease, and so will Britain.”