Bananas, balloons and salad boxes — the winners and losers of Brexit

The in crowd: Karren Brady, Olivier Giroud and Helen Mirren

Liz Hurley and Helen Mirren have expressed practical concerns about the impact of Brexit. So what do we stand to gain and lose from leaving the EU?

Brexit bonus

Better lighting. EU regulations say bulbs must be energy efficient, which means people such as Liz Hurley can no longer buy their favourite “60-watt, peach-coloured” lights. The actress cited this when she declared herself pro-Brexit.

£13 billion. That’s how much the UK contributes to the EU budget. But it also received

£4.5 billion last year so its net contribution was £8.5 billion. That’s seven per cent of what the Government spends on the NHS each year.

More rogue bananas. The EU has strict rules about banana weighing and Italy was once fined

€6.74 million for flouting them. Fruit imported into the EU must be approved by an authorised weigher, who has no criminal record and a clean tax record.

Control over fishing rights around the coast. Although this might be bad news for fish, as before EU regulations came into effect, overfishing was a problem.

Children will be free to blow up balloons. EU regulations say it is too dangerous for children under eight to do so unsupervised. They will also be free to play with blowing noise-makers (currently only safe for those over 14) and magnetic fishing games.

Salad freedom. The EU means you can’t mix your salads if you’re buying them from a supermarket counter because of allergies. This is a pain if you don’t want to commit to one dish — you end up with too many boxes, which not only is a bad look for an al desko lunch but is harmful to the environment.

Brexit backlash

Fewer international football players. Vice-chair of West Ham United, Karren Brady, has said Brexit would have a “devastating” effect on British football, and cause knock-on damage to the economy, because British teams would find it harder to sign European players if visas were more difficult to get. Imagine what a sad club Arsenal would be if Olivier Giroud had been put off joining the Gunners because arranging a visa was an arduous process. The silver lining could be that English players would have to try harder. Former player Sol Campbell is pro-Brexit, saying: “If we want to see more English stars like Harry Kane rise through the ranks we should take back control — and Vote Leave.”

More expensive holidays. The EU has been good for no-frills airlines because they don’t have to pay air service agreements between countries. If this changes, prices might go up and some routes could be cancelled, which worries Helen Mirren. She has a holiday home in Salento, Italy, which is easily accessible via Ryanair. If we leave, this route could be in jeopardy. Mirren has a grown-up attitude, saying “there are far more important issues” than her holidays. An easyJet spokesman disagrees, saying: “The single aviation area gives airlines freedom to fly across Europe. Since its introduction passengers have seen fares fall by around 40 per cent and routes increase by 180 per cent.” We would also have a weaker case for compensation if flights were cancelled.

Bad science. Medical research receives millions of pounds of EU funding. Professor Stephen Hawking says leaving would be a “disaster for UK science.” We also recruit scientists from Europe, who may be put off by complicated immigration procedures and fewer EU grants.

It will be worrying for pet horses — EU laws mean it is illegal to eat your pet horse, although you can eat other horses.

No more Rollers. Car manufacturers fear they might have to scale back or even end production in the UK if vehicles can no longer be exported tax-free to Europe. BMW has reminded its UK staff at Rolls-Royce and Mini of the “significant benefit” of EU membership.

Follow Susannah on Twitter @susannahbutter

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in