EU referendum: More than 300 business leaders back Brexit
More than 300 business leaders are calling on Britain to vote to leave
the European Union, saying that the country’s “competitiveness is being undermined by our membership”.
In a letter published in the Telegraph, the business leaders say that Brussels’ “red tape stifles every one of Britain’s 5.4 million businesses” and claim that a Brexit would allow them to “create more jobs”. Signatories of the letter include Peter Goldstein, a founder of Superdrug, Steve Dowdle, the former vice president Europe of technology firm Sony, David Sismey, a MD of Goldman Sachs and Sir Patrick Sheehy, the former chairman of British American Tobacco.
The letter is also signed by hundreds of people linked to small and medium-sized businesses. In total the backers of the letter are from businesses employing hundreds of thousands of members of staff. It will be seen as an attempt to redress the balance after
the Bank of England and the
International Monetary Fund last week warned that a Brexit would damage Britain’s economy.
It came as:
.
Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, said that Brexit campaigners are in “denial” about the economic risk of the UK leaving the EU, in an intervention described as “incredibly dangerous” by a minister.
.
- George Osborne, the Chancellor, will on Monday make a speech warning about the economic cost of a Brexit.
- Boris Johnson prompted a row by comparing the EU to Nazi Germany.
- Senior Conservative said that as many as 100 Tory backbenchers could back a no confidence vote in David Cameron if Britain votes to remain in the EU.
- Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said that he will under no circumstance share a platform with Mr Cameron ahead of the referendum.
- Three million European Union citizens in Britain could have to be deported in event of a Brexit, a Home Office minister suggested.
The letter in the Telegraph is signed by 306 business leaders in a personal capacity. It states: “Year-on-year the EU buys less from Britain because its economies are stagnant and millions of workers are unemployed. According to Mervyn King, the former Bank of England Governor, the Euro ‘might explode’. Brussels' red tape stifles every one of Britain’s 5.4 million businesses, even though only a small minority actually trade with the EU.
“It is business - not government - which generates wealth for the Treasury and jobs for our communities. Outside the EU, British business will be free to grow faster, expand into new markets and create more jobs. It's time to Vote Leave and take back control.”
Meanwhile, Lord Farmer, the former Treasurer of the Conservative Party and founder of Red Kite Group, who is also a signatory of the letter has written for this newspaper’s website to say that warnings of the risk of a Brexit are “misguided”.
Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...more-than-300-business-leaders-back-a-brexit/