LONDON: UK leading business organisation was facing an investigation last night into claims that a survey showing eight out of 10 firms supported staying in the EU was “fiddled”.
Vote Leave, one of the pressure groups campaigning for the UK to quit the EU, yesterday wrote to the British Polling Council to complain about the survey published by the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) in 2013.
Vote Leave alleged that the research carried out by the polling firm YouGov for the CBI “caused the public to be misled about the views of British businesses on the EU for nearly two years.”
The group claimed the poll was skewed towards larger firms, which were more likely to benefit from EU membership and take advantage of Brussels free-movement rules to employ foreign staff.
The CBI last night insisted the poll was “independent” and was never presented as a poll of all British businesses.
The clash between the CBI and Vote Leave comes as the row over Britain’s membership of the EU intensifies ahead of the in-or-out referendum promised by Prime Minister David Cameron by the end of 2017.
