[spireitematt]

I agree with Matt that staying in the EU will not guarantee manufacturing companies will stay in more expensive member states such as the UK, while trade and movement of people is essentially free a lot of companies will move to these member states that have far cheaper labour rates and offer massive incentives for factories to be built.  This obviously isn’t the be all and end all of the EU but it is one aspect of it, especially since the membership has been expanded to include a lot of countries who are distinctly an economic class below the major Western European countries.

Cadbury's moved to Poland in 2011, Ford Transit moved to Turkey in 2013, Peugeot closed it's Ryton plant in 2006 and moved to Slovakia, Texas instruments moved to Germany, ICI moved to Holland. Jaguar/Land Rover announced they were building a new plant in Slovakia in 2015 and it opened in October 2018. A lot of it is done by the EU giving companies grants or bank loans to move production to Europe