The boss of digger giant JCB says Britain leaving the EU won’t ‘make a blind bit of difference’ to trade with Europe, it was reported last night.
Chief executive Graeme Macdonald said cutting ties with Brussels would be better for Britain if Prime Minister David Cameron fails to renegotiate membership.
Mr Macdonald said that while Europe was an ‘important market’ for JCB, the public were victims of ‘scaremongering’.
‘I really don’t think it would make a blind bit of difference to trade with Europe,’ he told The Guardian.
‘There has been far too much scaremongering about things like jobs. I don’t think we or Brussels will put up trade barriers’.
Because the UK is so important as an export market, EU countries would not back out on trade deals, he added.
JCB is owned by the billionaire Tory-supporting Bamford family, and chairman Lord Anthony Bamford has donated £2.6million to the party in the last five years.
A referendum on whether or not Britain should exit the EU is scheduled to take place in 2017 now that Cameron won the election.
Britain leaving the EU won't 'make a blind bit of difference’ to trade with Europe, says boss of JCB
Graeme Macdonald claims the public are victims of 'scaremongering'
Says cutting ties would be better if PM fails to renegotiate membership
Comments are among first by UK businesses over in-out referendum
JCB chairman Lord Anthony Bamford has given Tories £2.6m in 5 years
By Alisha Rouse For The Daily Mail
18 May 2015
Daily Mail
JCB boss: Chief executive Graeme Macdonald said the public were victims of 'scaremongering'
The boss of digger giant JCB says Britain leaving the EU won’t ‘make a blind bit of difference’ to trade with Europe, it was reported last night.
Chief executive Graeme Macdonald said cutting ties with Brussels would be better for Britain if Prime Minister David Cameron fails to renegotiate membership.
Mr Macdonald said that while Europe was an ‘important market’ for JCB, the public were victims of ‘scaremongering’.
‘I really don’t think it would make a blind bit of difference to trade with Europe,’ he told The Guardian.
‘There has been far too much scaremongering about things like jobs. I don’t think we or Brussels will put up trade barriers’.
Because the UK is so important as an export market, EU countries would not back out on trade deals, he added.
JCB is owned by the billionaire Tory-supporting Bamford family, and chairman Lord Anthony Bamford has donated £2.6million to the party in the last five years.
The comments by Mr Macdonald, who has been at the helm for more than two years, are among the first by British businesses over an in-out referendum.
Conservative backer: JCB is owned by the billionaire Tory-supporting Bamford family, and chairman Lord Anthony Bamford (above) has donated £2.6million to the party in the last five years
The executive also called for a slashing of ‘ridiculous’ EU red tape, admitting it’s easier to sell goods to the US.
He said: ‘Whether that means renegotiating or exiting [the EU], I don’t think it can carry on as it is.
'It’s a burden, it’s easier selling to North America than to Europe sometimes.’
The revelations from JCB come as Andy Burnham, one of the favourites to become the next Labour leader, surprisingly called for the government to speed up plans for the referendum and hold it in 2016, a year earlier than proposed.
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