FTSE 100 company, Legal and General, suggests British independence from the EU

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3Pn9ueAe7

Let's quit EU unless we get a better deal: Legal & General boss delivers Brussels blast

• Dr Nigel Wilson says UK economy is focusing too much on Europe
  
• He is first boss of a FTSE 100 company to publicly suggest quitting EU
• Intervention suggests growing disquiet with Brussels among big firms

UK economy 'underachieving': Dr Nigel Wilson (pictured), chief executive of insurance giant Legal & General, became the first boss of a FTSE 100 company to publicly suggest quitting the EU

The boss of one of the UK’s biggest companies has said Britain should leave the European Union if it cannot renegotiate a better deal with Brussels. Dr Nigel Wilson, chief executive of insurance giant Legal & General, became the first boss of a FTSE 100 company to publicly suggest quitting the EU. He said the UK economy is ‘underachieving’ by focusing too much on Europe rather than faster growing markets.

He told the Mail: ‘Leaving the EU would not be as disastrous a scenario as some people have painted it as. ‘If we get a terrible deal we should stay out. I see the world as a huge opportunity for the UK but we are underachieving by concentrating on Europe, which is growing too slowly. This will not lead to economic growth in the UK.’

Legal & General is also a major investor in infrastructure projects. Dr Wilson yesterday complained that his firm has wasted £150million on complying with one European directive called Solvency II, which is making it more expensive for insurance companies to invest in infrastructure. Last night he received the backing of another influential business leader.

Peter Hargreaves, billionaire co-founder of investment and pensions firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said the UK should quit the EU whether a better deal is thrashed out or not. He said businesses are hampered by ‘stupid regulations dreamed up by bureaucrats’. The intervention suggests growing disquiet with Brussels among big business. Simon Wolfson, boss of Next, and Phones4U’s John Caudwell are among a string of high-profile figures who have called for less intervention from Brussels but who have stopped short of suggesting an exit so far.

A lot of large corporations are in favour for reasons I have stated over and over: the ability to lobby one parliament (Brussels) for their interests rather than having to deal with 28 separate parliaments. But this intervention is welcome: and he's right we're tying ourselves needlessly to European economies which are shrinking rapidly compared with the growing markets in Asia and Africa.

If we don't leave now, when we do leave we'll have missed the boat in terms of FTAs with the Commonwealth. It'd be such a waste.

Thoughts?

[The Don]

This article is like a year old, are you planning on making a new thread every time someone says we should leave the EU? I could quite easily find a different person saying the opposite.

"Dr Wilson yesterday complained that his firm has wasted £150million on complying with one European directive called Solvency II, which is making it more expensive for insurance companies to invest in infrastructure"

Lmao, and it suddenly becomes apparent why this man is in favour of leaving the EU. Hard to take someone seriously when they have such a conflict of interest in the matter. What's more likely, he wants to leave the EU because it's better for him personally (saving $$ on pesky EU protocols), or because he genuinely thinks it's in the UK's best interest?

[GommeInc]

This article is like a year old, are you planning on making a new thread every time someone says we should leave the EU? I could quite easily find a different person saying the opposite.

"Dr Wilson yesterday complained that his firm has wasted £150million on complying with one European directive called Solvency II, which is making it more expensive for insurance companies to invest in infrastructure"

Lmao, and it suddenly becomes apparent why this man is in favour of leaving the EU. Hard to take someone seriously when they have such a conflict of interest in the matter. What's more likely, he wants to leave the EU because it's better for him personally (saving $$ on pesky EU protocols), or because he genuinely thinks it's in the UK's best interest?

To be fair, when a company becomes insolvent and an insurance company has invested in that company, the last thing you would want is fewer rights than other investors. Credit is the life blood of business, after all. So it isn't without reason really, although he probably does mean making as much profit as possible (and insurance companies are not quite strapped for cash - but they're not rolling it in either).