Chamber chief: We'll help you decide on EU

A KEY part of the Conservative manifesto in the 2015 general election was a commitment by David Cameron to hold a referendum on the UK’s ongoing membership of the European Union by 2017. There has been widespread recent coverage as we see David Cameron seek to re-negotiate our terms of membership. Whether we stay or leave has become a very hot topic over the last few years and the debate is now really picking up pace as we head towards an announcement of the referendum date. The UK has held 12 referendums to date, the majority of which have been related to the devolution of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The first was in 1973 and only two of these have covered the whole of the UK, including the 1975 referendum, again on our ongoing membership of the EU.

Referendums are overseen by the Electoral Commission and follow strict rules. A key requirement of a referendum is the appointment of an official campaign for both the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote. Each official campaign will qualify for funding and have to abide by strict rules and David Cameron needs to officially give 16 weeks’ notice of a referendum. Number 10 is reported to favour June 23, 2016 as the date – meaning we could see an official announcement of a date for the referendum towards the end of February or beginning of March.

We are now seeing various campaigns appearing, all seeking to convince voters why we should stay or leave the EU. Both the ‘stay’ and ‘leave’ camps are an interesting cross-party mix of politicians and well-known personalities in the business world. We have groups such as Stronger In, chaired by former head of Marks and Spencer Stuart Rose, with a diverse board including Peter Mandelson, Karen Brady and Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. There are some key groups on the ‘leave’ side, including Leave.EU which has the backing of Nigel Farage who describes it as an ‘umbrella group’ of anti-EU campaigners.

Whether we remain or stay is an important debate within the business community and Dorset Chamber has a significant responsibility in playing a key role in making sure we give chamber members the opportunity to both get the information they need in deciding whether they we feel we should be in or out of Europe and importantly debate the key issues around EU membership. Our plans over the next few months will include a series of polls and debates and our intention is to engage both the official ‘yes’ and ‘no’ groups in meetings here in Dorset. We will work closely with both our membership and also the members of the many chambers affiliated to us across the county in giving our business community a strong voice on his incredibly important issue. We look forward to hearing your views.