In my series about the misleading stuff from the Vote Leave bible (HERE) I look back to what they said about various things in order to persuade people to vote to leave the EU. Today I want to look at what they said about the banks. If you want to see for yourself and you have a few days of your life to waste you can find the 1000 page tome, written in 2015 HERE. The helpful Q & A section begins on page 944. Two years on and with the vote in the bag and negotiations underway, we can look back on what was said and compare it with reality.
Q48 Doesn’t business want us to stay in the EU?
Mr Elliot's answer: The business community is split on the issue. A lot of business people have gone on the record to state that the EU damages their company. That is especially true for SMEs. Some commentators suggest that the EU is a corporatist entity and so best suits a few big business insiders who can personally lobby Commissioners.
What is actually happening?
"In a recent independent poll of our members by ComRes, 80 per cent of CBI businesses wish to remain in the EU – just 5 per cent want to leave. That’s small, medium and large firms, which operate in every corner of the UK and across every business sector – together they employ nearly 7m people. Recent business surveys have covered smaller and mid-sized firms, as much as large, and they demonstrate majority support for remaining within the EU – that is the mainstream business view". Paul Drechsler President of the CBI (HERE)
Yes, the business community is split - 80% wanted to remain while just 5% wanted top leave. To believe Mr Elliot you would have to think 80% of CBI members want to stay in the EU in order to damage their own businesses.
