Ed Miliband will tomorrow (Monday) launch Labour’s Business Manifesto with a warning that David Cameron’s decision to play short term politics with Britain’s membership of Europe is a “clear and present danger” to British firms and Britain’s prosperity.

In his speech at Bloomberg’s headquarters in London, he will describe how Mr Cameron has repeatedly caved into demands from backbenchers and the majority of Tory party members who want the UK to leave Europe.

Mr Miliband will say his commitment to a referendum on an arbitrary timetable of 2017 at the same time as the Tory party begins a leadership contest to succeed him is a recipe for instability and chaos for Britain’s businesses.

In contrast, he will say Labour’s Better Plan for Business will put the national interest first, safeguarding Britain’s future and the access of British firms to their key markets. Labour’s focus is on delivering reforms within the EU including on growth, the budget and immigration, as well securing new international trade agreements.

The Labour Party has taken out a full page advertisement in tomorrow’s Financial Times which underlines how it will put the interests of Britain and British business first rather than risk an EU exit.

Labour is also releasing a dossier showing how, under pressure from Ukip and his own backbenchers, David Cameron has:

·         Abandoned his previous stance of opposing a referendum and now refuses to rule out voting to leave Europe himself

·         Led a party where support for Brexit includes a growing number of MPs and candidates, as well as a majority of activists who are already doing local deals with Ukip.

·         Overseen an extraordinary loss of British influence in Europe, over five years in which he has become the first British PM to lose an EU council vote and shown he no strategy to negotiate reform.

The dossier includes remarks made by the few remaining pro-European Conservatives including Laura Sandys, the Tory MP for Thanet South, who told a meeting this month: “I don’t think that it is really since Elizabeth I refused to sleep with a continental King that this country has had an absolutely clear policy to reduce its influence in Europe. I think it is a remarkable idea that we would like to reduce our impact, our influence, our voice, with our neighbours. Extraordinary.”

The 22-page Business Manifesto is the first of several such documents the party will be publishing in coming weeks. Labour’s Better Plan for Business sets out how the next government will:

·         Build a strong economic foundation, cutting the deficit every year with a surplus on the current budget and national debt falling as soon as possible in the next Parliament.

·         Support access to international markets by returning Britain to a leadership role in a reformed European Union.

·         Meet Britain’s long term infrastructure needs by setting up an independent National Infrastructure Commission.

·         Tackle rising business costs, by maintaining the most competitive Corporation Tax rate in the G7 and cutting and then freezing business rates for more than 1.5 million small business properties.

·         Ensure firms can get the finance they need to invest and grow by establishing a proper British Investment Bank which will also support a network of regional banks.

·         Tackle skills shortages by ensuring all young people study English and maths to 18 and introducing a gold standard vocational route, including a plan to create thousands of new apprenticeships.

In a speech to Bloomberg in London to mark the launch of the business manifesto, Ed Miliband is expected to say:

“There could be nothing worse for our country or for our great exporting businesses than playing political games with our membership in Europe. David Cameron used to understand that. But in the past five years our place in the European Union has become less and less secure.

“He used to say he would campaign to keep Britain in Europe. But now he won’t rule out campaigning to leave. He used to say he would be able to negotiate treaty change in Europe. But now he prefers to keep quiet about that too.

“He came to power promising to stop his party ‘banging on about Europe’. Now if he carries on this way, he’ll have us inside Europe banging on the door to leave or, even worse, outside Europe - banging on the door to be let back in.

“I want to be clear about what is at stake in this election for British business. David Cameron promises a referendum on an arbitrary timetable, after a set of negotiations on treaty changes which require the agreement of 27 other member states. He promises a vote on our membership of the European Union organised by a divided Conservative Party, over half of whom want to leave, and a Prime Minister who doesn’t seem to know his own mind.

“And, at the same time, he promises a leadership contest in the Conservative Party  to succeed him when candidates will be vying against each other for who can be the most extreme on Europe. It is a recipe for two years of uncertainty in which inward investment will drain away, two years of chaos in which businesses will not be able to plan for the future, and two years of wasted opportunities for progress, for profit, for prosperity: a clear and present danger to British jobs, British business and British prosperity.

“It threatens to leave UK businesses out of a market that gives them access to the world’s largest trading bloc. It’s simply the wrong direction for our country.  If you care about strong foundations, if you care about long-term stability, if you care about prosperity, then Britain must be a committed member of a reformed European Union, not threatening to leave, not locked out of the room.

“Instead we should be reforming Europe from the inside to support the needs of business, to build an EU that spending its budget wisely, to build an EU with fair rules on immigration.  We’ll show strong leadership to get the best for Britain. But we won’t condemn this country to years of uncertainty, years of insecurity, by threatening our European future.”