The former Mayor of London writes for Echo readers on why he thinks they should vote to leave the European Union. David Cameron's argument for Remain is here.

ON June 23 the people of Southampton face a once in a lifetime choice: ever closer political union inside a failing EU or freedom outside trading freely not only with our European friends and neighbours, but with the world.

The forces of doom and gloom predict economic catastrophe if we leave.

They are the same forces who predicted disaster if we didn't join the Euro.

They were wrong then, they are wrong now.

They tell us that the EU creates jobs, strengthens our economy and gives our country global reach.

But tell that to the 51 per cent of young Greeks who are unable to find work as a result of the economic tornado that is tearing through the Eurozone.

For them and many other eurozone countries, the EU is a job destroying machine.

Ports like Southampton are a major employer and strategic industry in the UK.

According to a report by Oxford Economics, in 2013, the UK ports sector ‘supported 344,300 jobs’, with ‘a £19 billion gross value added contribution to UK GDP’.

As the rest of the world shows, it is perfectly possible to have thriving ports without having to abide by regulation from a political organisation bent on ever closer union.

According to the World Shipping Council, none of the ten busiest container ports in the world are in the EU.

So why then does the EU insist on making our laws for us?

It’s baffling that under EU treaties, the European Parliament and Council of Ministers (via qualified majority voting) have the power to regulate British ports.

In 2013, the Commission proposed a regulation on ports, which ‘will contribute to the completion of the European Single Market’.

The proposal would impose various requirements on how 47 major ports in the UK must be managed and requires the creation of a new ports regulator in the UK.

And that speaks to a wider point about the EU, which is its unashamed lack of accountability.

A disregard for the right of nation states, let alone local communities, to determine their own future, for which we have to fork out £350 million a week just to be a member of.

I believe that Southampton has a great future whether we are in or out of the EU.

But this Thursday you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something positive which is to take back control of that right to govern ourselves.

To lift our eyes beyond the strangulation of the EU, to co-operate and trade not just across the European continent but with the rest of the world.

So let’s Vote Leave this Thursday.