PRESS RELEASE : Campaign News – The ‘dodgy’ CBI
The press release issued by Vote Leave on 3 November 2015.
The CBI’s claim to be the ‘voice of business’ took a further blow yesterday after a leading member of the British Polling Council concluded that its polling of business opinion on the EU ‘looks pretty dodgy’. This damning verdict followed a complaint by our Campaign Director Dominic Cummings. It brings into serious question the claim by the CBI that ‘8 out of 10 firms say UK must stay in EU’. Indeed, the CBI has now back-tracked from its own survey, claiming that it was ‘never intended to be a poll of all British businesses.’ The CBI has deliberately fiddled its surveys and misled the public on business attitudes towards the EU. It has no credibility on the issue and should not be trusted.
CBI is funded by the EU
New research by Vote Leave reveals that the CBI receives millions from the EU and public bodies. Taxpayers’ money from the European Commission has funded the CBI to the tune of almost £1 million over the past six years – its largest source of public money. As the Mail leader asked this morning, ‘could this have anything to do with its support for the European project?’
Since 2009, taxpayer-funded public bodies including the European Commission have paid over £7 million to the CBI in membership fees and other payments. Not only does this call into question the CBI’s claim that it is the ‘voice of business’, but its own rules mean that many of these public institutions will have to resign from the CBI if it continues with its plans to campaign for the UK to remain in the EU. The Scottish Independence referendum was an embarrassing episode for the CBI after a number of major public bodies resigned when it registered to campaign against independence. A month later the CBI was forced to withdraw from the campaign.
Outgoing CBI boss John Cridland has given an interview to the FT today in which he sees the criticism of the CBI’s ‘dodgy’ polls and its unfaltering pro-EU stance as a ‘badge of honour’. Most people would see this behaviour as shameful.
US trade diplomat’s EU ties revealed
Michael Froman, a US trade representative, made headlines last week by claiming that the UK was unlikely to negotiate a free trade agreement with the US in the event of Brexit. However, as John Hulsman wrote in yesterday’s CityAM, the next US President is ‘highly likely to do exactly the opposite’ of what Froman implied. What the trade representative failed to mention was that he had previously worked in the European Commission as a member of the Forward Studies Unit. He clearly wasn’t the only one to have accepted a ‘duty of loyalty’ to the EU.
Watch out for EU funded scare stories
As the referendum campaign continues we should expect more of these attacks from those with vested interests. The EU gives millions each year to organisations to be cheerleaders for Brussels. That’s why EU-funded reports say that 90% of UK farmers wouldn’t survive outside the EU. That’s why former EU employees are warning the UK won’t be able to do its own trade deals with the US. That’s why the EU-funded CBI will put out scare stories about how the UK won’t survive outside of the EU. They should not be trusted.
This was no better demonstrated by a report from Agra Europe last week which claimed that 90% of UK farmers wouldn’t survive the loss of subsidies following a Brexit. It only became apparent days later that Agra Europe and its sister company had received more than €200,000 in EU funding.
