ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now three former Prime Ministers, a man who used to be the head of the Army and a series of some of Britain’s top business leaders have added their voices to the campaign to stay within the European Union.  Britain Stronger In Europe, BSIE, has its formal launch tomorrow following hot on the heels of two exit campaigns.  I am joined now by the co-founder of Innocent Drinks, Richard Reed, who is the group’s Deputy Chair, a very good morning to you Mr Reed.  BSIE, it might not trip off the tongue, tell me though why are you getting involved?  Are you just talking your own book here, is this out of self-interest, your company I know exports an awful lot to other EU countries?

RICHARD REED: Yes, I think it’s because of the experience I’ve had as an entrepreneur. I set up a smoothie business from a stall at a music festival and 15 years later it’s employing hundreds of people and trading with 17 countries.  I’ve experienced first-hand the benefits of being part of the EU and the free trade zone and essentially our business is a company that makes here and sells the majority of our smoothies over there but employs a majority of the people here. S it is fantastic for the economy so I’m not doing it from a partisan point of view, I’m doing it from an informed point of view.  It’s a simple economic fact, it is better for the economy, for Britain, to be in Europe.  

DM: Can I ask you on the number of employees, do you know how many of them come from other countries within the European Union?  

RICHARD REED: Well we have 330 in total, the majority work in Fruit Towers which is London and the vast majority of those are UK born but yes, we benefit from the free trade of Europe.  We send talented people over there, we get talented people from over there to over here but net overall the majority of people we employ are UK citizens.   

DM: But you know what the out campaigners say of various hues, none of them say that there would be trade barriers put up, the whole thing is that they want to reset the relationship with the EU, get trade central there and get back to that free trade area that it was originally and get rid of all the other stuff, the integration, the political integration, the social integration.  Your company would not lose out under their vision as far as I see it.

RICHARD REED: Well no, it’s a perplexing argument that they make because what they are saying is what we need to do is leave so that we can try and get back in again.  That doesn’t make any sense.  Look, I’m not here to try to be negative about the other side, what I really welcome, we all get one vote each and this is a big decision that we want to get right so let’s get informed, let’s listen to the arguments but let’s also do business with the way that the world is.  We need to be part of the largest market in the world which is Europe, we don’t want to get involved in some sort of annoying negotiations to get back into the thing that is already done.  Even if we did come out, we would still want to trade and of course we still could trade but we will still have to comply with all the legislation and all the regulations and all the rules of that particular game, the difference would be we’d no longer be round the table helping set those rules.   

DM: So are you in favour of a renegotiation because there must be rules, you talked about them and some of them must be burdensome, must be irksome to a company like yours.  There must be some EU regulations and directives that come your way where you think my goodness me, why are they doing that, particularly in the sector you’re in?

RICHARD REED: Well we are all up for reforming the EU, I’m certainly not going to sit and say it is some sort of perfect institution.  It’s good for the economy, it does mean we are stronger and safer as a country, it does mean that as consumers we have cheaper prices, we have cheaper flights when we go on holiday, there are a myriad of different benefits.  Yes, we want to reform it but you definitely get a better ability to reform when you’re on the inside round the table rather than on the outside on the street.

DM: But do you think then that the Prime Minister is on the right track, that there is an urgent need to reform things but you will stay in come what may, even if the rest of Europe says go away we’re too busy at the moment with migrants and with the euro and things like that, just go away and it will stay like it is, you say that’s fine?

RICHARD REED:  Well I back our Prime Minister and he is also going into those negotiations knowing that previous Prime Ministers have all been able to get reform in Europe, it’s not been a static thing that has never changed.  We’ve been brilliant as a nation of going into the EU, getting reform, getting the changes that we want.  We vetoed the euro – good decision, we vetoed the passport veto and … [over-talking]

DM: But you’re saying you’d like it to be reformed but it’s not a deal breaker for you, you would stay in come what may.   

RICHARD REED: I’m saying right now in its imperfect form we’re stronger economically being in, we’re safer as a country being in, as consumers we’re better off being in.  We can make it better for sure and I’ll back him and he’ll get some stuff and it will make a good thing better.  

DM: But the question is what happens if he doesn’t?  

RICHARD REED: Well if you ask me a direct question, do I think we should be in even if it stays the same, my answer is definitely let’s be in even if it stays the same because a) it’s good now, it’s not perfect but it’s definitely good now and b) if stay in we’ve got a much better chance of continuing to be able to reform it in the way that we want rather than if we come out and go, sorry we want to be back in again, can you do some stuff for us.  It doesn’t make sense and I think, and we’re all going to hear for the next two years thousands of arguments, lots of data and people arguing, I think it’s going to come down to some common sense principles.  Do you think it’s best for us as a country to come out of the world’s largest free trade zone?  Do you think we’re going to be stronger and have greater global leadership if we retreat from this big institution?

DM: Well you know what people say about that, they say as a country we can do bilateral deals with individual countries like China.  I mean crikey, if that market opened up for your company.  

RICHARD REED: I wouldn’t sell a single smoothie there I’m sure.  44% of what this country exports goes to the EU so let’s … I mean obviously there is great growth coming from the BRICs but the BRICs in total only add up to 8.5% of our exports, the EU is the biggest game in town by a huge margin so let’s not poke that big customer in the eye.  It would be like me going to Tesco’s and saying we don’t want to be stocked in your supermarket anymore but will you still buy our products?  It doesn’t make sense.  

DM: But it seems to me from what you’re saying, if you’re looking for ease of exporting it would be much easier from the narrow viewpoint of your company, if we were in the euro.

RICHARD REED: No, not at all, no, no, definitely not, I absolutely do not want the euro and the great thing is that because of the way we negotiated things in the past we can be part of the EU, get access to all that great market and not have to have the euro.  That’s a really good deal, we really shouldn’t jinx it.

DM: Okay, good to talk to you, thank you very much indeed for coming in. Richard Reed there.