IN the run-up to the EU referendum on June 23, the Guardian is asking people for their views on whether the UK should leave or remain.

Here, we speak to UKIP councillor Rod Butler, who represents Honey Lane ward in Waltham Abbey on Epping Forest District Council, on why he wants the UK to leave the EU.

“I think the EU is a dictatorship which has no interest whatsoever in constructive input from Britain. The prime minister, after EU ‘negotiations’ returned with virtually nothing and what he did return with is subject to final EU ratification AFTER the referendum! The cost of EU membership gets higher each year, exaggerated by each new EU crisis, whilst our own hospitals, schools, housing stock and prisons are all at bursting point because of lack of investment.

“On workers' rights it is often suggested that our employment laws would disappear if we left the EU. Having just returned from Lisbon I learnt that a friend had lost her job because she became pregnant. There will be no EU job held open for her, unlike the maternity leave that British mothers enjoy. Workers' rights are often worse in the EU than Britain and remember that some parts of the EU have 50 per cent unemployment.

“We do not get value for money. We pay £350 million a month into this money guzzling, expensive political club called the EU and get so little back. I could foresee a time when the British government and even the monarchy become redundant if this opportunity to leave is not taken.

"What would really be the point in paying for two governments, one here and one in Bruxelles?

“Recent laws passed by the EU are of little benefit to us at all. Light bulbs, bananas, toasters and irons have all been legislated upon by the EU. If for instance, we all had to upgrade our cars, income would be generated for the EU whilst we would have to pay for these ‘improvements.’

"It’s an easy way for the EU to make money; simply introduce new laws and legislation which involve the British public having to buy the new (and EU legal) version. I have visited the EU in Bruxelles and seen with my own eyes that the real purpose of the EU is to think of and introduce new laws, which all EU members have to obey (and pay for).

“Trade is not an excuse for remaining in the EU. I see more EU trucks and trailers on the M25 than British ones. The EU countries are very happy to keep piling their cars, pots, pans and plants on our shores whilst we pay the EU fees of £350m a month to export much less to the EU than we import.

"We should be making our own laws and rules, which fit in with what is required worldwide for British businesses to thrive. It’s Goodbye EU and Hello Europe and the rest of the big wide world.

“We do not know exactly what Britain will be like outside the EU, but we certainly don’t know what life would be like in the EU if we stay. There is no telling what Bruxelles would come up with and what new rules or legislation would be forced upon us.

"We would unfortunately be at the mercy of EU bureaucrats who do not understand or care about British history, people and customs. However, after we leave the EU, we will be able to control our laws and our immigration rules. We will trade unhindered with the whole world instead of being tied to just business made via the EU. I would suggest that after the referendum there will be some nasty surprises for us if we don’t leave!

“It is now time to leave. Various British leaders have avoided the mounting problems of membership for so many years, hoping that the EU problems would simply ‘go away.’ I would like to call on all Guardian readers to vote Leave. We cannot change the EU. Please think of our children and their children; an uncontrolled EU over which we have little influence, would be a terrible legacy for future generations. Please vote Leave.”