Future is uncertain

Recently retired, I still pay UK income tax on most of my income with French taxes paid on the rest.

The Brexit vote’s immediate effect is to give me a 12% pay cut by the collapse of the pound with a strong chance of falls still to come.

Despite working in France, my only right to live here is via my EU citizenship, which will be removed by Article 50, as will my right to find work in any other EU country.

The French state has the right to demand extra taxes on non-citizens.

There is a strong possibility that like 3.5million ex-pats in the EU, I will be forced to sell off my house in an already flat market, or simply abandon it and return destitute to the UK.

There is also a possibility that the UK’s outbreak of abuse against foreigners may spread to France and drive us out by force.

Having been in the EU for more than 15 years I was not allowed a vote in the referendum, neither am I permitted to contact Emma Lewell-Buck, the Shields MP, for advice or support.

I loved South Shields and cannot believe that my old friends and neighbours knowingly voted for what has happened already and for what will come.

I feel that voters were lied to and that what was promised will never be delivered, and the effects on the North East’s jobs, prosperity and prospects will continue to be negative as a new right-wing government fumbles to undo what it created.

Brian Hinchcliffe