Election 2015 live: HSBC threat to leave UK shows danger of Tory re-election, says Labour

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has also commented on the HSBC announcement. He said it showed a Tory government was “a risk we cannot afford to take”.

HSBC is just the latest in a long line of companies warning of the dangers of a re-elected Tory government taking Britain out of the European Union.

The big risk to our economy over the next few years is EU exit if the Tories win the election. It would have a disastrous impact on jobs, trade and investment in Britain. It’s a risk we cannot afford to take.

View image in fullscreen

Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, has also put out a statement about the HSBC announcement.

Today’s HSBC announcement confirms fears that businesses have over a swing to the right and the prospect of a ‘Blukip’ coalition pulling us out Europe.

David Cameron, held hostage by UKIP partners and the right wing of his party, would drive the country further towards a ‘Brexit’ – which would hit both jobs and business.

Earlier today Alexander published a document with comments from financial analysts suggesting the markets would like to see a stable, centre-ground government.

Back to Ed Miliband.

Q: What would you do to bring about a two-state solution in Palestine?

Miliband says time is running out for the two-state solution. That is deeply worrying.

He says John Kerry has played an important role.

First, the international community must engage.

Second, he is not in favour of boycotts. And we must reject attempts to delegitimise Israel.

Third, Miliband says he supports the principle of recognising the Palestinian state. But the timing should be a matter of when this might best help the peace process.

Miliband says he regularly meets Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness in Northern Ireland. In the 1980s the idea that they could have been first minister and deputy first minister together would be been implausible. That shows you how much things can change.

View image in fullscreen

Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, has put out a statement saying the HSBC announcement about possibly moving its HQ from London says that Conservative proposals are already having a damaging impact.

David Cameron’s arbitrary timescale for a referendum on EU membership has sent a wave of uncertainty across boardrooms in Britain.

As the comments from HSBC’s chairman this morning confirm, business leaders are speaking up about the risk of uncertainty that UK exit from Europe brings. David Cameron can no longer claim that this isn’t already having an impact on companies’ decisions around jobs and investment in this country.

The risk of David Cameron’s gamble on EU membership could not be greater for British business, and would be a disaster for Britain’s financial services sector in particular.

View image in fullscreen

Q: What is the difference between Libya and Syria? You supported the Libyan intervention, but opposed intervention in Syria.

Miliband says in Libya there was an immediate humanitarian crisis. There was international support for intervention too.

Syria was different. He was asked to support military intervention in direct response to the use of chemical weapons. He asked if that was the best approach, what the consequences would be, and whether the intervention had international legitimacy.

The situation in Libya is tragic.

But ‘something must be done’ is not a sufficient guide to foreign policy.

Q: Would you do a confidence and supply arrangement with the SNP?

Miliband says he will put forward a Labour Queen’s Speech. It will be for other parties to decide how they vote on it.

But he says the union is a fragile thing. Labour would speak up for working people in all parts of the UK. But David Cameron is seeking to divide the country, he says. Labour would not take that approach.

Ed Miliband has just finished his speech on foreign policy. He is now taking questions.

Q: You have said the Tory plans for an EU referendum could cause instablity. But Labour is also committed to a referendum in the event of a transfer of power to Brussels. Doesn’t that stop integration?

Miliband says he does not believe that is the direction Europe is going in.

He does not want to see Europe go in that direction. The British people do not want that either. So the Labour policy amounts to a “lock”.

That means EU leaders can focus on reforming Europe.

The intervention from HSBC is “very significant”, he says.

The last thing our country needs is two years of internal debate about whether we should leave the European Union or not ... What is worrying is that the centre of gravity of the Conservative party is moving towards exit.

Labour favoured EU exit in 1983, he says. It did not have a great election. In some ways the positions are now being reversed, he says.

Miliband told his audience at Chatham House that under David Cameron’s leadership Britain had “stepped away from the world rather than confidently towards it”.

He says in two weeks the country faces a choice between different ideas. Labour believes UK is stronger when it looks outward – a policy he calls “hard-headed multilateralism”.

His speech is over and he is now taking questions.

Q: Isn’t there a danger that you will deepen division? Nicola Sturgeon said this morning you were doing everything you could to reduce the power of Scotland in the UK?

Cameron says the greatest danger to the UK is having an unbalanced constitutional settlement.

What would weaken Scotland’s influence most in the UK would be Sturgeon’s policy of taking it out of the UK, he says.

He says Scotland “punches above its weight” in the UK. Look at the influence of Scottish entrepreneurs, or the Scottish role in the armed forces.

As he tells his challenge, the great challenge in the world is how different groups can live together peacefully. This has been solved in the UK. You can be Scottish and British, and Hindu and Scottish and British etc.

He is proposing a balance in the constitution, he says. Only the Conservatives are offering that.

And that’s the end of the Q&A.

Meanwhile in an unusual broadcasting clash of leaders’ events, Ed Miliband is making his foreign policy speech at Chatham House.

He says the UK needs a strong voice on the world stage, as problems in countries across north Africa and the Middle East cannot be tackled by one state alone.

He also touches on this morning’s announcement from HSBC that it considering leaving the UK.