Accountancy boss backs Dr John Ashcroft’s EU views

IN Accountancy director Sarah Harkness has backed the views of economist Dr John Ashcroft that there is ‘no business case for leaving’ the EU.

Sarah was at the round-table debate of Marketing Stockport’s founding members at Beechwood Cancer Care Centre.

Dr Ashcroft  told the room: “We are walking into a world of the unknown and there is a huge agenda but there is no business case for leaving, especially when we don’t know what the alternative is.”

Britain will go to the polls on June 23 to decide whether to stay in the EU.

Sarah said: “I found the debate both interesting and useful in terms of understanding the known pros and cons of Br-IN vs Br-Exit in terms of the business, economic, social and political viewpoint.

“What came across clearly to me was that while there is a clear business case to stay in Europe, the other areas can probably be argued either way.

“It was very clear that no-one has a concrete plan for what might happen on exit.

“I thought John’s analogy of ‘would we blindly follow a new CEO who turned his back on 42% of existing business without any plan for how we might replace these lost sales’ was very appropriate. I for one wouldn’t.”

IN Accountancy have also produced a blog on the EU debate.

It says: “Overall it seems that due to the referendum there will be short-term uncertainty in the markets but it should be short-lived, as the vote is only around the corner.

“Leaving the EU would also create uncertainty for business but many people consider it truly inappropriate that the UK isn’t free to sign trade agreements with countries like India and China.

“In conclusion,  there doesn’t seem to be a clear economic case for either staying in or going out of the EU.

“The most likely determining factors appear to be political issues, such as, immigration and whether the British people feel that sovereignty is important.”