The Telegraph reports that Labour is facing embarrassment after businesses featured in a political advert
about the risks of Britain leaving the EU distanced themselves from Labour.
They say that the party took out a full-page advert in the Financial Times featuring quotes from six of Britain's biggest business leaders warning about the risks of leaving the EU.The advert has the tag-line: "The biggest risk to British business is the threat of an EU exit. Labour will put the national interest first. We will deliver reform, not exit.”However, the quotes used in the advert were up to two years old and several of the companies quoted have raised concerns:
A spokeswoman for Siemens UK, whose chief executive is quoted in the advert, said that the Labour Party has "overstepped the line".
The spokeswoman said that the company had not been informed that a quote made by Juergen Maier, the chief executive, would be used in the advert.
She said: "They did speak to us about the quote, which
is absolutely fine. The content is something he has spoken about many
times.
"But we were not told it would be used in an advert. We were not given any warning. We are apolitical, we don't endorse political parties, we wouldn't have agreed to be in an advert for the Labour Party. The feeling is that they have overstepped the line."
The advert includes a quote from Jonathan Myers, the head of Kellogg's UK and EU operations, made in March last year: "The biggest short term rick to Manchester's competitiveness in the EU is a simple one. It is the risk the UK could leave it."
A source close to Kellogg's said that the company had only been contacted on Sunday as a "courtesy" by the Labour Party, and was not given the option of removing its name from the advert.
The source said "eyebrows were raised" by the advert: "Clearly we have concern with anything that goes into the public domain that would lean us to a political party. We are politically neutral.
Clearly, it is not the content that is the problem but the timing and association. You can never be too careful.
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