May warned that companies would leave the UK if the country voted for Brexit during a secret audience with investment bankers a month before the EU referendum. A recording of her remarks to Goldman Sachs, leaked by the Guardian, reveals she felt dismayed by leave campaigners before the vote in June.
In a private audience with executives from the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, the then-home secretary was more vocal about her concerns than during the referendum campaign.
Speaking at the bank in London on 26 May, May clearly stated the economic benefits of staying in the EU. She told staff it was time the UK took a lead in Europe, and that she hoped voters would look to the future rather than the past.
In an hour-long session before the City bankers, she also worried about the effect of Brexit on the British economy.
“I think the economic arguments are clear,” she said. “I think being part of a 500-million trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe.”
The leak will heap further pressure on May who is appearing quite lacklustre in her support for the Leave campaign and has not enthusiastically embraced Brexit since the June 23 vote, although Conservative voters have spoken.
“If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.”
The stark warning about the economic dangers of Brexit are a far cry from her far more upbeat pronouncements since, when the PM has vowed to “make a success” of leaving the EU, the British daily Express reported, but huge obstacles remain and May will be axploiting those to keep Britain in the EU, het detractors say.
During her speech at Goldman Sachs, May also made the case for staying in the EU to keep Britain secure, citing the European Arrest Warrant as a scheme the UK should remain part of.
May is facing the most significant challenge to her leadership after one of the Conservatives’ most high-profile backbenchers resigned from Parliament last night over the decision to build a third runway at Heathrow.
As Zac Goldsmith, the party’s unsuccessful London mayoral candidate, resigned, the Heathrow decision also prompted a major split within Cabinet, with Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary and popular Brexiter, telling May the project is “undeliverable”.
Remain campaigners pledged to use the Richmond by-election to “send a message to the Government” and demand a second vote on the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
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