The majority of British businesses have made it clear that they do not support Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to significantly limit EU immigration and possibly leave the Union itself in the future.
At the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) annual conference, held yesterday and attended by Cameron along with the leaders of the Labour and Liberal party, the group’s president, Sir Michael Rake, outlined in his opening remarks how most businesses are happy with the UK’s current set-up within the European Union.
He revealed that eight out of ten CBI members, both and large and small, would vote to stay in the EU should a referendum be held in 2017 – this is something Cameron has promised should the Conservatives form a majority government following next year’s General Election.
Sir Michael also stated that 62 per cent of CBI members believe that immigration had been beneficial to their business, while only 1 per cent labelled the impact of immigration as being ‘negative’ for their business.
The CBI President described the UK’s membership of a reformed EU as being “overwhelmingly in our national interest,” and stated that “Immigration has been and is part of the solution to the skills shortages faced by the UK.”
Article published 11th November 2014