Peter Hargreaves

Peter Hargreaves, Source: Leave.EU

Peter Hargreaves is the billionaire co-founder of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown and one of Britain’s richest men.

Hargreaves, who founded the brokers in 1981 alongside Stephen Lansdown, stepped down as firm co-director in April 2015 although remains a major shareholder.

Biggest donor to EU 'leave' campaign

Hargreaves is one of several influential bankers and businesspeople bankrolling the Brexit campaign to leave the European Union ahead of a national referendum scheduled for 23 June 2016.

UK Electoral Commission records in May 2016 revealed that Hargreaves has so far given UK £3.2 million to Leave.EU, the largest donor on either side of the campaign. Other leave backers include Lord Michael Farmer, former Tory treasurer, and Peter Cruddas, the former Tory party co-treasurer and founder of the trading firm CMC Markets.

Hargreaves was a co-signatory to a 2009 letter published in the Financial Times entitled: 'Britain must negotiate a new relationship with Europe'.

Brexit would be 'Good for the UK'

In an interview with Geoff King of Bloomberg Brief Hargreaves outlined why he avidly supports leaving the European Union in the referendum on 23 June. When asked why he was leaning this way, Hargreaves resolutely responded:

'Every year in the EU it gets more political, it gets more legislative, more regulative; we don’t seem to get very much benefit from it. We will be far better out. The EU as an economic mark is declining in the world, when there were only nine countries in it was 30 percent of the world's GDP, now there are 28 it is only 17 percent. That's some serious decline. Other countries that are growing — India, parts of Africa, Brazil, China and even Russia — are the places we should be trading with'.

When asked what the fate of the EU would be in the result of Brexit, he declared that the departure of the U.K would spell the beginning of the end for the integration project:

'The EU will disintegrate when we leave. They will realise there is nothing left. The political union is going to be a disaster and they'll want a free-trade area. Do you know who'll be the first country invited to that free trade area? The U.K.'

Affiliations

• Open Europe
• Global Vision