Britain’s leading employers’ organisation will urge its members “to turn up the volume” about the benefits of EU membership amid concerns that a vote to exit in the referendum would lead to isolation.

Sir Mike Rake, president of the CBI, will tell the organisation’s annual dinner in London that businesses have to make a stronger argument for Europe in language that makes sense to the public.

Business must be crystal clear that membership is in our national interest Sir Mike Rake, CBI

The call came as Deutsche Bank became the first leading financial company to state publicly that it would consider moving part of its London-based operation out of the UK if Britain decides to end more than four decades of EU membership in the in/out referendum pledged by the government by the end of 2017.

Rake will say: “Business has increasingly spoken out on this crucial issue and the time has come to turn up the volume. Speaking out clearly and in a language which people can understand. In the months to come, our country will have to make its own choice. A choice between openness and isolation. Between shaping the future or retreating into the past.”

With members on both sides of the argument, the CBI took a neutral position when Tony Blair’s government debated the merits of joining the euro in the early 2000s. But the employers’ organisation has taken a more aggressive approach to EU membership, arguing that a vote to leave would put jobs at risk and cost Britain influence.

A report published by the CBI in late 2013 said the benefits of EU membership were worth £3,000 for every UK household, a figure disputed by those campaigning for Britain to leave. During the election campaign, Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, said the UK’s membership fee for the EU was £20bn year.

Japanese, German and US diplomats have been warning the UK privately for some time that foreign-owned businesses are worried about the so-called Brexit scenario, but the election result has made businesses on both sides of the argument more willing to express their views in public.

After the chief executive of JCB, the digger manufacturer, said on Sunday that a UK exit would have no negative impact on trade with the rest of Europe, Deutsche Bank is reported to have set up a working group to study the ramifications of a referendum vote to leave the EU. It employs 9,000 people in the UK.

The comments from the CBI president reflect concern in the pro-EU camp to avoid the negative and dry tone of the Better Together campaign in the Scottish referendum last year.



Sir Mike Rake, who has questioned whether the UK would thrive outside the EU. Photograph: Rex

Rake will say: “The question is not whether the UK would survive outside the EU, but whether it would thrive. No one has yet set out a credible alternative future to EU membership. The current alternatives are not realistic options – little or no influence and the obligation to comply with EU principles whilst still paying most of the costs.

“Norway is the 10th highest contributor to the EU budget, despite not being a member, and it took Switzerland nine years to negotiate and implement partial access to the single market.”

Almost half of Britain’s exports go to other EU countries, despite the five-year sovereign debt crisis that has stifled growth in the 18-country eurozone. Attempts by UK companies to expand into the faster growing economies of Asia have proved only partly successful.

“Business must be crystal clear that membership is in our national interest,” Rake will say. “The EU is key to our national prosperity. Letting us set the trade agenda, be part of the biggest free trade deal ever negotiated – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – and be able to properly compete with global giants like China and India.”

While acknowledging public concerns around immigration, Rake will warn that the NHS could not operate without skilled migration and that attracting the “best and brightest European talent” is good for the economy.

The CBI has backed David Cameron’s view that it is in the interests of the UK to remain within a reformed Europe, with its director general, John Cridland, saying previously that the EU needs to “do more of what it is good at and less of what it is not good at”.

Rake will flesh out this argument in Wednesday evening’s speech, urging that regulation on lifestyle issues should be left to member states, adding that “poorly thought-out legislation – especially on employment law – can be a real headache for business”.



“Today the moment is ripe for reform. The things we want are shared by our European colleagues and the EU can be more competitive without the need for treaty change,” he will say. “Reform will not happen overnight. But by working with our allies on an ambitious – yet achievable – agenda, we can make it a reality. So we support the prime minister’s drive for a more competitive EU. And the new government can count on business’s support to make this happen.”