Top UK business bosses sign letter supporting a Remain Vote

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 22, 2016

More than 1,280 business leaders have signed an open letter backing the Remain campaign ahead of the EU referendum on Thursday.

They include 50 FTSE-100 companies as well as smaller firms, all of which believe that British businesses benefit ‘massively’ from the European Union.

Among others, backers from the fashion and retail industry include Anya Hindmarch MBE, founder of Anya Hindmarch; Christopher Bailey MBE, CEO of Burberry; Brian McBride, Chairman of Asos, Andrea Slater, Group Vice President UK & W Europe of Avon Cosmetics; Grace Bonner Wales, Christopher Raeburn, Mary Katrantzou, Erdem Moralioglu, Creative Director of Erdem; José Neves, Founder of Farfetch and Marc Bolland, Former CEO of Marks and Spencer.

“We know our firms are stronger in Europe,” reads the letter, which was published in the Times as well as on Stronger in Europe’s website on Wednesday.

“Our reasons are straightforward: businesses and their employees benefit massively from being able to trade inside the world’s largest single market without barriers. As business people, we always look to the future — and a future inside the EU is where we see more opportunities for investment, growth and new jobs. We know that Britain leaving the EU would mean having to re-establish terms of trade from scratch with our home market of 500 million consumers. That wouldn’t just hurt exporters but the hundreds of thousands of small and medium firms who do business with them,” it adds.

“Britain leaving the EU would mean uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs. Britain remaining in the EU would mean the opposite: more certainty, more trade and more jobs. EU membership is good for business and good for British jobs,” reads the letter.

On Thursday 23 June, millions of British voters will cast their ballots to have their say about Britain’s membership of the European Union. The results could affect trade dramatically.