JLL’s EMEA chief executive, Guy Grainger, gave an impassioned plea for voters to stay in the EU at the forthcoming referendum.
Speaking at the “Britpop vs Eurotrash” debate at Ellandi’s #retailrocks conference at the Geological Society in Piccadilly, W1, Grainger said that he would be voting to stay within the EU for the sake of both JLL’s staff and his children.
“I want to make a vote that counts for them. We hear about uncontrolled migration but it counts both ways,” he said.
“People join our company as they want the opportunity to work in Europe. I want our employees to have the opportunity to work in Europe, and my children, they go to state school, which is well-funded by the government, but I don’t know how they will turn out and I want them to have the opportunity to have a right of way across this great union whatever their capability.”
He added: “I think we need to consider what we want to represent. What are our cultures and our values? We are an open and transparent nation which has gained trust throughout the world which has helped us grow. The feedback from overseas is that they are very interested in the referendum and seeing if there is a change in culture and that could lose an element of trust.”
Richard Tice, chief executive of Quidnet Capital Partners, argued that the UK was “the greatest nation on earth” and that the country should “fundamentally control our own laws and our own borders”.
Concerns that global corporations could relocate from London and hit the occupational market in the event of a vote to leave was also addressed by Tice.
He said: “In the past four months, when the polls have been close, global corporations such as HSBC have said they will stay. If it was such as concern they wouldn’t have done so.”
Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that voters ought to consider the weight of the major organisations that had come out against the UK leaving Europe, such as the IMF and the Bank of England.
“Could one of these bodies be wrong? Maybe. Could all of these bodies be wrong to say they will do such damage to the economy? I don’t think so. As this country struggles out of recession do you really want to bet your job and the economy on this?”
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