The seven reasons we’d be better off outside EU, by former HSBC chief

A FORMER HSBC boss last night set out the economic case for Brexit – saying it would allow Britain to ‘take back control’ of the City of London.

Michael Geoghegan, group chief executive of the bank between 2006 and 2010, laid out seven reasons why he believed the UK was better off outside the EU.

He said leaving the European Union would enable Britain to regain power over taxation, ditch costly Brussels red tape and shelter the Square Mile from the fallout of a future eurozone crisis. Such moves would ‘ make the City a more competitive, prosperous global financial centre’, he said.

And he warned that the proposed EU ‘financial transaction tax’ on banks could have an impact on Britain even if – as George Osborne has promised – we do not take part in it. Remaining could mean multi-billionpound tax raids on the UK, less influence on international bodies and a reduced chance to promote the City as an international financial centre, his report warned. Mr Geoghegan’s intervention contrasts sharply with the comments of current HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver, who threatened to move hundreds of jobs to Paris if we leave. The threat has since been dropped.

It makes him one of the most senior big business figures to reject the view of the CBI and others that leaving the EU would be a risk. His intervention is a riposte to claims that Leave campaigners have ‘lost’ the economic argument. In his report, written with independent risk consultant Peter Udale, Mr Geoghegan also hit out at Bank of England boss Mark Carney for his one-sided scaremongering on Brexit. The pair conclude that it was wrong to warn earlier this month that leaving could lead to a technical recession.

They wrote: ‘Over the course of many years, the UK Government has failed to stop damaging EU financial sector regulation, has ceded control to the eurozone and has suffered an erosion of its sovereign powers in areas such as taxation. Our conclusion is that a vote to leave would allow the UK to take back control over the City, would reduce the risk of future euro-contagion to the UK financial services sector and the wider UK economy, would return primacy over areas such as taxation to the UK and, over the long term, would make the City a more competitive, prosperous global financial centre.’

Among their seven reasons for leaving, the authors highlighted the risk that Britain could be outvoted by the eurozone. Quitting the EU, they said, means empowering the Bank of England rather than having ‘inflexible, rule-based regulation from Brussels’, better regulation of our financial sector and less exposure to a future eurozone crisis.

‘Unlike the French, who have a veto over EU legislation relating to agriculture, the UK has no such control over a key part of its economy – financial services,’ said the report. It also claimed the proposed EU ‘financial transaction tax’ on banks could cost UK taxpayers an extra £4billion a year in higher interest rates. Even if we do not sign up to it, Brussels could still force us to collect taxes under what is called ‘EU enhanced co-operation’.