The campaign for Britain to leave the EU has been backed by 250 business leaders including the former chief executive of HSBC, the Vote Leave group said on Saturday, hoping to counter the view that UK
The campaign for Britain to leave the EU has been backed by 250 business leaders including the former chief executive of HSBC, the Vote Leave group said on Saturday, hoping to counter the view that UK businesses back staying in the bloc.
The camps arguing for and against Britain staying in the EU ahead of a referendum on British membership on June 23 have both made the economic impact of a “Brexit” a cornerstone of their campaigns.
In February, the bosses at more than a third of Britain’s biggest companies including major oil companies Shell and BP and its largest telecoms group BT said leaving the EU would put jobs and investment at risk.
On Saturday, Vote Leave, one of the groups supporting a British exit, unveiled its own list of backers including Michael Geoghegan, former chief executive of HSBC Group and Tim Martin, the boss of pubs group JD Wetherspoon.
However, David Petraeus, a former US military commander and CIA director, wrote on Sunday that a “Brexit” would significantly weaken the bloc’s security, urging Britons not to vote to leave the union.
The comments, days after suicide bomb attacks killed 31 people in Brussels, support one of the British government’s key arguments in its campaign to win over undecided voters — that the country is safer inside the 28-country bloc. Polls show that public opinion is evenly split on whether to remain in the European Union.
