The Second Annual Plymouth Brexit Summit
by Ian Smith
Building on the success of Plymouth’s first Brexit summit a year ago, the second annual summit squarely addressed the key topic Brexit: How Prepared is Plymouth and the far South West? The summit was convened by Plymouth MP Luke Pollard with significant inputs from Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, Tiverton and Honiton MP and EFRA select committee chair Neil Parish, Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw and Aberavon MP and member of the Exiting the EU select committee Stephen Kinnock. A good selection of local, regional and national figures drawn from enterprise and commerce, educational institutions and civil society, including RIO CEO Lindsey Hall, brought their knowledge and expertise to the summit.
The highlights of this year’s summit for me included: Molly Scott Cato calling for full Brexit impact assessments to be made public to enable informed decision making; Luke Pollard emphasising that preparedness matters and that the voices of the far south west need to be represented effectively; Neil Parish underlining the importance of affordable food; Plymouth City Councillor Jonny Morris highlighting the everyday realities faced by the people of Plymouth; and Femi Oluwole examining the implications of Brexit on younger people.
For further information and a wide selection of perspectives and images, please go to Twitter@PlymBrexit and #PlymBrexit .
