CBI reacts angrily to Gove’s Marr Show claims

The CBI has accused the Vote Leave campign of “wilfully misrepresenting the majority voice of business” after Michael Gove, the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, appeared on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Gove, a leading light in the Vote Leave campaign, said that “a large proportion” of business wanted to leave the EU – a claim that has been angrily rebuked by the CBI.

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, said: “It is wilfully misleading to suggest that a large proportion of businesses want to leave the European Union – every business survey bar none, across all sectors and of all different sizes of business, shows a majority wanting to stay in the EU.

“80% of the CBI’s members have said their businesses would be more successful within the EU, and only 5% want to leave. Organisations representing sectors as diverse as manufacturers, car makers, aerospace and defence to financial services, tech start-ups, farmers and healthcare, across the length and breadth of the UK, paint a similar picture.

“In a world of growing protectionism and economic uncertainty, it is cloud cuckoo land to believe that the UK could easily walk into free trade agreements with the EU if it left the single market, and businesses know this.”

Last month, on a visit to Nottingham, Gove told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Listen to the people who employ more than half the workforce in the East Midlands.

“99% of businesses in the East Midlands are small or medium sized, and while only 6% trade with the EU, all have to abide by red tape – such as having to label smoked salmon as “containing fish”.

“30% of East Midlands businesses surveyed consider that EU regulation makes it harder for businesses like theirs to employ people, that’s compared to just 7% who think it makes it easier.”