EU referendum: Former HSBC chief executive makes the case for Brexit
The former chief executive of HSBC, Michael Geoghegan has made the positive case for Britain leaving the European Union in a report that argues the UK must "take back control over the City".
The paper, co-authored with Peter Udale, an independent risk consultant, says the Bank of England has "given the impression that all the risks lie on the leave side" and that the Bank's publications and speeches show that "it too has serious concerns about the long term risks of remaining in the EU."
Geoghegan and Udale say they wrote the report "to provide some balance to the debate by highlighting the risks of remaining in the EU."
In particular, the pair are concerned that the government has allowed the EU to impose too much regulation on the financial sector, has given over control to the Eurozone nations and has lost control over powers such as taxation.
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They write: "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."
The intervention comes as the EU referendum debate has tilted onto the issue of migration – today Cameron was accused of misleading the British people with impossible manifesto pledges on migrant numbers, and called out for being "too rich" to understand the public's concerns.