ANS boss joins EU devolution campaign

Scott Fletcher one of 73 north west business leaders to sign the Business for Britain campaign

Scott Fletcher, founder of ANS Group, has added his signature to a list of business leaders who have come out in support of Business for Britain, North West, which is pushing for a renegotiation of Britain's EU membership.

Business for Britain is a national campaign group for UK businesses which wants to see a new deal for the UK's role in the EU and more powers devolved from Brussels.

Its North West branch launched yesterday after 73 business leaders from the region added their names in support of the campaign, with Fletcher among the list of supporters.

Fletcher (pictured below) told CRN he was pleased to see other business figures coming out in support of the movement.

"It's great that everybody is putting their heads above the parapet," he said. "It's about time that SMBs said what they really think, which is that the EU adds no value. If it's adding no value then why are our businesses for it at all? In most cases it's big business that is pro-EU. A lot of the laws the EU puts in place are anti-small businesses, because it puts regulation on the SMEs; that's exponentially more costly for a small business than a large business."

Fletcher said he did not think Britain's EU membership really mattered to the UK's channel.

"Most vendors price in euros and then convert it back to pounds, or price in dollars and convert to pounds," he said. "The pricing isn't going to change and I can't ever see trade barriers being put up for IT equipment from the US - that would be ridiculous. Most of our IT [trade] is done with the US so coming out of the EU is a non-event for an IT reseller."

Fletcher went on to say he felt the EU is largely an "undemocratic" body.

"It's an organisation that hasn't managed to pass an audit since its inception," he said. "The whole concept of it is undemocratic and most of the decisions are made by unelected people and passed down the chain. We elected our government to run the country - not the EU - and that's the bottom line. When it comes to it do we need another government above Westminster? I don't think we do."