David Cameron is to urge business leaders to back the UK’s continued membership of the EU once he has succeeded in renegotiating the terms of Britain’s membership.
Speaking to world and corporate leaders at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the prime minister will say that the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU will be “a once-in-a-generation moment and the stakes are high”.
“The voice of business must be heard in Britain and across the whole continent,” Cameron will say. “If you want a more competitive Europe, where the single market is completed, where there are more trade deals and fewer regulations: join me in making that case.
“If you believe, like I do, that Britain is better off in a reformed European Union, then, when the time comes, help me make that case for Britain to stay.”
Cameron will use his speech to move the focus away from his attempts to secure changes to the rules around the state benefit entitlements of migrants to his ambition to cut red tape for business, another of the four principal aims of his negotiations.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said the speech would remind business leaders that “many of the reforms we are seeking are things that they have called for”.
“How do we make sure that the EU, which we joined for the single market benefits and the benefits to business, continues to work for them and, indeed, work better for them,” she said.
In June the business secretary, Sajid Javid, criticised the Confederation for British Industry for making it clear that they would support staying in the EU regardless of the success of the prime minister’s renegotiations.
“You know how negotiation works. You wouldn’t sit down at the start of a merger or acquisition and, like a poker player showing his hand to the table, announce exactly what terms you were prepared to accept,” said Javid. “It doesn’t work in the boardroom and it won’t work in Brussels.”
Cameron will be seeking to reach a deal on a package of reforms at a summit in Brussels on 18 and 19 February. The prime minister is expected to hold a cabinet meeting “as soon as possible” after the deal has been secured to set a date for the vote. A number of cabinet ministers are expected to campaign to leave the EU.
Pro-Europe campaigners are preparing for the referendum to be held in June, with a date suggested for the 23rd of the month, but there is also a possibility that the vote could be held in September.
