08 November 2004

Business gets behind Vote No campaign

By Cathy Newman, Chief Political Correspondent

Published: November 8 2004 02:00 | Last updated: November 8 2004 02:00

Campaigners against the new European Union constitution have persuaded 400 business leaders to attend a fundraising dinner in what they say is a clear sign that industry is becoming in-creasingly eurosceptic.

This month's dinner marks the start of a year-long drive to build a £5m war chest for the campaign for a No vote in the forthcoming referendum on the constitution. Vote No, the anti-constitution group, says it has been forced to turn people away from the dinner because of lack of space, in spite of moving the venue from the Barbican to The Savoy, where there is more room.

Neil O'Brien, campaign director of Vote No, said: 'The government can use taxpayers' money to sell the EU constitution but we have to rely on individual donations. So it's vital for us to start fundraising early. The good news is that business, and particularly the City, is increasingly sceptical. They think the EU already regulates too much and fear that the constitution would make things even worse.'

Mr O'Brien said the campaign had secured the backing of several high-profile business people not previously associated with the anti-euro lobby. They include Bobby Hashemi, co-founder of Coffee Republic. The government is to hold a referendum on the constitution in early 2006. A bill paving the way for the poll will be in this month's Queen's Speech. The dinner has been masterminded by Vote No's new chief treasurer, Michael Spencer, chief executive of the money broker Icap.

Other prominent supporters in the campaign - which also inherited 10,000 donors from the anti-euro effort - include the hairdresser John Frieda; Sir Crispin Davis, chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch publishing group Reed Elsevier; and Robert Woods, chief executive of P&O, the ferries operator.

Sir Brian Williamson, the former chairman of Liffe, the London derivatives ex-change, who is now director of the EU-wide trading platform Euronext, has just joined Vote No's board.

Vote No, which has also paid for an advertisement to run alongside the new Bridget Jones film, believes enlisting the support of business is key to the success of its campaign. Business leaders were more trusted than politicians, said Mr O'Brien.

The dinner and the disclosure of the extent of business support for Vote No will increase the pressure on the Yes campaign.

Lucy Powell, campaign director of Britain in Europe, said: 'We are undergoing a new fundraising drive ourselves and we are confident that we have got a lot of the people and the arguments to generate new funding. But there's still a certain amount of cynicism from some of those people who funded a euro campaign.' The in-creased activity by Vote No could also undermine Tony Blair's hopes of preventing Europe becoming an issue in the general election, expected in the first half of next year.

Ministers are divided over how soon to mount a campaign to sell the benefits of the European constitution to a sceptical public. Some argue that there is no time to be lost while others warn that voters will be bored by a long campaign.

© Financial Times