FORMER Foreign Secretary David Miliband has today (Sunday, May 8) warned a vote to leave the European Union could be dangerous for the North-East economy.

The ex-South Shields MP was back in the region to give a keynote speech ahead of the referendum on June 23.

The 50-year-old, who quit politics in 2013, was speaking at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.

He said: “Prosperity in the North-East is more dependent on membership to the European Union than any other region in the country.

“There are 100,000 jobs in the North-East that are dependent on trade with the EU and we know that major employers, like Nissan and Hitachi, have made it absolutely clear that their investment here is not just based on the fantastic workers, but also on our trade relationship with the EU.

“I hope every family in the North-East is thinking about the prosperity that has been brought by membership of the EU and the risk that it is put in a dangerous position by an alarming decision for us to withdraw.”

Mr Miliband, now president of the International Rescue Committee, added: “The work that was done by Phil Wilson and the other North-East MPs to bring Hitachi to the region was massive and the risk that is posed by the threat of a vote to leave was dramatically set out by the Prime Minister of Japan last Thursday.

“Japanese Prime Ministers don’t speak in blunt and alarming terms unless they are very, very worried.

“For him to say, on a state visit to the UK, that he opposes Britain leaving the EU and that Japan hopes Britain will stay and he knows that Japanese companies want Britain to stay is a very significant thing.

“We also know the directors of Nissan and Hitachi want Britain to stay because their investment has been premised on our membership of the European Union, so it is a very stark choice, not just for people who work for Hitachi or who work for Nissan but for the whole of the region.

“We know these have been some of the greatest gains we have made in the last 20 or 30 years.”

Mr Miliband said the economic argument was bolstered by a social and political arguments.

He said workers’ four weeks annual holiday comes as a result of being part of the EU and could not be guaranteed without membership.

Mr Miliband said: “The EU has not just a been a central part of peace and stability in Europe for the past 60 years, it is also a central part of the international system and to start to tear down that system at a time of international uncertainty would be a very dangerous act.

“We are living in a time of an unprecedented number of people fleeing conflict around the world and that is a not time for an act of political arson on the international system.”