Rivals compete to be UK's voice of business on EU There are many similarities between Business for Britain and Business for New Europe, the two leading lobby groups battling it out to be the voice of UK business on the subject of the EU. Both purport to represent a majority of businesspeople's views. Their backers, like the occupants of most British boardrooms, are overwhelmingly male. Both say that, rather than leave the EU, they want Britain to stay in a reformed institution that better answers the needs of corporate UK. There the similarities end. While BNE unashamedly believes that Britain is better off in the EU, BB takes a more sceptical, hardline stance. "You are much more likely to get the reforms you want by being a positive, active member [of the EU]," says Roland Rudd, chairman of PR company Finsbury and founder of BNE. But Matthew Elliott, BB's chief executive, counters that many of his group's supporters would want out of the EU if it did not reform. "Change, or Go" is the title of its latest publication. "There has to be a point where we say the terms we are offered are not acceptable," says BB's chairman, John Mills. I don't think the world would end if we left. Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur and Financial Times columnist who sits on BB's advisory council, says he would prefer not to see the UK out of the EU altogether but adds that "we need to get together and force through change . . . More than any other political structure I know, [the EU] feels as if it has been put in place by a tiny number of elite Davos attendees who completely ignore the wishes of hundreds of millions of citizens right across Europe. Measuring the relative clout of the two groups is partly a numbers game. Both claim to represent the majority opinion of British business. Last summer BNE garnered 260 signatories for its manifesto, which calls for completion of the single market, the signing of trade deals with the US and Japan, a reduction in the regulatory burden on business and an enhancement of the City as the world's financial centre. BB's founding statement, by contrast, calls for a renegotiation of the terms of the UK's EU membership followed by an in/out referendum; this has attracted 1,000 names. Their support differs, too. BB's advisory council includes Roger Bootle, the economist and author of The Trouble with Europe, hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, and Sir Michael Hintze, the hedge fund manager and Conservative party donor. Its 10-man- (and one woman-) board is chaired by Mr Mills, founder of consumer products company JML, and Alan Halsall, the toy entrepreneur who rescued Silver Cross. Neither of the latter two runs big businesses - JML has revenues of just over £100m a year - reflecting the fact that BB feels it speaks up for many of the UK's smaller companies. BNE's advisory council, meanwhile, includes Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of BAE Systems, and Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP. After BB published its list of signatories, some businesspeople, such as Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher, withdrew their support for the group, finding that its "one size fits all" approach was an inadequate representation of their views, and that the debate was less black and white than "in" or "out." Their budgets differ significantly. BNE was set up in 2006 by Mr Rudd of Finsbury, and has received substantial support from the company - a quarter of this year's budget of £200,000 - although it says it has raised a similar amount in donations alone this year. BB is a more recent operation, established 18 months ago, but with an annual budget of £600,000, raised from donations. Measuring the influence of each group, though, is a more subtle exercise than totting up membership or financing. Although both say they do not use formal metrics to measure their impact, the extent of media coverage is the most visible sign. So far this year, BB has managed 120 mentions in UK broadsheets, compared with just 30 for BNE. "Business for Britain has had a very substantial impact on the media," argues Mr Mills. We are right on the money in terms of where public opinion is in this country. BNE argues that it faces a more difficult task in winning column inches since its message is more nuanced and, although Alisdair McIntosh, BNE director, says the group is "not primarily an SW1 operation," being heard in Westminster is as important a measure of success. Both groups took part in joint fringe events at the three main party conferences this autumn - sponsored by Citigroup and Clifford Chance - events which, says BB, demonstrates that its main desire is to get as vigorous a debate going on Europe as possible. The two groups purport to be non-partisan, although their leadership and membership inevitably show a tilt towards one party or another. Mr Rudd has close ties to Lord Mandelson and New Labour and used to work for Lord Owen, the SDP founder. Meanwhile, Mr Mills is one of the Labour party's largest private donors, though his role as co-chair of BB reflects its somewhat awkward spanning of the political spectrum from diehard eurosceptic Tories on the right to the anti-globalisation left. Perhaps the most important gauge of the two groups" future influence is rooted in the increasingly venomous debate over which best represents the genuine views of British business. The BB challenges claims by the CBI, the employers" lobby, that eight out of 10 of its member companies, both big and small, support UK membership of the EU. A BB survey a year ago of 1,000 people, 70 per cent of whom represented small companies, conducted by the polling firm YouGov, found that two-thirds supported the holding of an in-out EU referendum, and it argues that the employers" lobby predominately represents the views of big business. "We have never said there should not be a referendum," says John Cridland, director-general of the CBI. He describes the BB as a "single issue group" and says the CBI's views on Europe are the outcome of months of consultation with its trade associations members representing 190,000 businesses. What does unite both groups, though, is their belief that the voice of business must be heard in the debate over the UK's role in the EU, a belief that has been strengthened by the role business played ahead of the Scottish referendum. "We've got a lot to do in the run-up to the election," says BNE's Mr McIntosh.