[Richard Quest, Cnn Anchor:] Closing bell is ringing on Wall Street. Lime Brokerage is ringing the bell, and the gavel gets hit. Yes, there we are, a nice firm gavel to bring trading to a close. It's Wednesday. It's the 22nd of June. Tonight, Britain on the eve of history. Last-minute campaigning before a vote that frankly is still too close to call. Banks batten down the hatches for fear of punishing pound volatility, and all aboard. I'll be taking you on board a whistle-stop tour of Britain in our 1970s British camper van. I'm Richard Quest live in London where, of course, tonight I mean business. Good evening. It is the eve of an historic decision that will shape Britain and its place in the world for decades to come and the country is bitterly divided. A record 46.5 million people have now registered to vote in the EU referendum, and the polls have consistently shown voters are split down the middle. Ahead of the vote British politicians are making their final push persuading the electorate. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, told voters remaining in the EU will boost Britain's ability to create jobs, fight climate change and win against terrorists. U.K. Independence Party, UKIP leader Nigel Farage says, a vote to leave is a vote to literally regain control of the nation.
[Nigel Farage, Leader, Uk Independence Party:] Tomorrow we can vote for real change. Tomorrow we can vote to put power back in the hands of people. We can vote to take control of our country back. We can vote to get our borders back. We can vote to get our pride and self-respect as a nation and in who we are as a people back.
[David Cameron, British Prime Minister:] Above all, it's about that word, together. We will win together, fight together, keep the Britain in a European Union together. So let's get out there and vote remain, tomorrow, Thursday. Go for it. Thank you.
[Quest:] Now the former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Norman Lamont joins me live. First of all, you're obviously strongly from the "Leave" campaign. Have you found yourself in some difficulty being on the same side as Nigel Farage from UKIP, a man with whom you don't have many things in politics with common with?
[Norman Lamont, Former U.k. Chancellor Of The Exchequer:] It's not so much being on the same side as Nigel Farage. I don't take any particular pleasure of being the opposite side from David Cameron who used to work for me when I was chancellor exchequer. This is an issue above personal friendship, that is above party.
[Quest:] Right. There's a letter in this morning's "Times". Entrepreneurs and business executives have written this letter to the "Times." Entrepreneurs and business executives are basically making a last-minute push to stay in the EU. The letter is on page nine, if I sort of head to it. To nearly 1,300 of them were involved, and they signed this letter urging voters to choose to remain in the EU. The letter basically says they represent over a million employees, and it is their considered opinion that they are better off within the EU for business point of view. Why should we ignore the views of so many CEOs running so many companies?
[Lamont:] Well, I don't think you ignore the names of the people, but a list of names is not an argument. One considers the arguments on their merit.
[Quest:] But you're talking about Sir Richard Branson, Carly McAuliffe, EasyJet Michael Bloomberg, I mean, I could go through the whole list. You can see the letter. It basically says, as business people we look to the future, and a future inside the EU is where we see more opportunities for investment, growth and new jobs. Now, your side has to basically say why we should not listen to these people who employ so many people and run such big businesses.
[Lamont:] Well, I think you would find that smaller businesses and entrepreneurs actually, you know, there are plenty of them. They may be a minority, but there are quite a lot of people in that category who take quite a different view. I don't think that this is determined, as I said, by lists or by numbers. You say they represent a million employees. Well, the labor force, you know, that's less than 5 percent of the labor force.
[Quest:] But it's the companies, sir. It's Diageo, it's BP, it's PWC and, I mean, these are the backbone of the British economy.
[Lamont:] Big business, many of it likes the EU because it has an inside track. They can sit cozily with civil servants. They can lobby. Brussels is full of lobbyists. Big business like it more than small business does. That is the case, but, you know, I think there are arguments against I think one of the mistakes that many of these businessmen make is that they overrate the single market. The impression is given that the single market is some castle or walled garden and we've got a special key to it, but, frankly, this is just not true. The EU is accessible to non-members as well. The United States sells more to the single market than we do. Even in services the United States is increasing its services faster than we do.
[Quest:] You surely can understand that it is very difficult for the voter to go against many experts, many economists, who were wrong over the ERM and wrong over the euro, but, you know, when the doctor tells you to take this medicine, you take it. As David Cameron says when the car mechanic says don't drive the car you don't drive it. When George Soros says, the pound is going to go down 15 percent, you listen and were you on the other side of Soros in `92.
[Lamont:] But as you have just said, these people were wrong before about the euro. I remember in 1982 when 364 economists, 364, it's not 1,200 but still an awful lot, wrote a letter to "The Times" saying that the British economy would never recover from the policies being pursued by Mrs. Thatcher. And almost to the day that they wrote the letter the economy started growing again. This is not just about the opinion of there are other issues as well. There's obviously the issue of our borders. There's the issue of where the European Union is going. It is going towards becoming a political union in which the British Parliament has less say, ministers have less say. They are a small minority. You have 10 percent of the votes in the European Parliament, 8 percent of the votes in Council of ministers and we have measures imposed on us that we don't want.
[Quest:] If the vote is to remain, just for the purposes of this question, sir, humor me that the vote, do people like yourself then basically keep quiet and sort of work for reform within the union, but this has now been a decision. We have to move forward within the union. It's time to put the argument of membership
[Lamont:] I think whatever way it goes, the decision has to be accepted. Of course, people may
[Quest:] But you call rankle sidelines.
[Lamont:] I'm not going to rankle.
[Quest:] Not you personally.
[Lamont:] I don't think people should rankle. But that is not to say that you can settle an issue for eternity. I don't suppose there's going to be another referendum if "Remain" win within the next couple of years or the next five years. But that doesn't mean that people won't evaluate what Europe is doing. An awful lot will depend on what Europe does next as well.
[Quest:] Lord Lamont, thank you, sir, for coming in. Thank you, I appreciate it very much. Now, as we sort of take the temperature of those people who were there in `92, of course, when the ERM diabolical took place. And also in the years afterwards. Lord Lamont's predecessor, Lord Nigel Lawson, who supports the "Leave" campaign as well. So here we have two former Tory chancellors, both of whom are supporting the leave campaign. I started asking Lord Lawson how he accounts for experts warn of grave consequences from Brexit.
[Nigel Lawson, Former Uk Chancellor Of The Exchequer:] I think that when people say don't listen to experts, what they're thinking about is, for example, the 364 economists who in in 1981 said that such a government, that which I was a part, was driving the economy on to the rocks and we'd be in a deeper recession. In fact, then we had a recovery. The experts subsequently said the United Kingdom will be finished if we didn't join the euro. It's now clear that the euro is a disaster area and we were very fortunate that we didn't join it. So they are frequently wrong. But you know, I mean, you know, in my own small way as a long serving chancellor I regard myself as something of an expert and Norman Lamont, another former chancellor, takes the same view that we will be far better off outside the European Union.
[Quest:] One of the most persuasive arguments for the "Leave" side is that you would negotiate an independent trade treaty with the EU. But surely any trade treaty with the EU would require Britain to follow the same rules and the same standards whether it's manufacturing standards. You know, you're going to end up being following the rules without having a say in how they are made.
[Lawson:] Well, there are three things, if I may say so, that are mistaken about that. First of all, we don't need a trade treaty at all. You don't need a trade treaty to trade. We do far more trade, far more with the rest of the world than we do with the rest of the European Union, and we don't have a trade treaty with most of these countries. We don't have a trade treaty, for example, with the United States, and we do an enormous amount of business with them. People confuse trade treaties with trade. Trade is important and trade treaties are not. Particularly if you look at Europe where the weighted average of the European common external ties bar is 3.6 percent. That's a tiny barrier and indeed the rest of the world, all outside the European Union, trade massively with the European Union despite no trade treaty. The other thing is what this ignores is the harm of overregulation. One of the problems with the European Union is they have what they call is a Democratic deficit and bureaucrat surplus. And European regulation is stifling small and medium-sized companies, particularly in the United Kingdom, and we can't do anything about it inside the European Union because European Union law is superior to United Kingdom law.
[Quest:] Lord Lawson talking to me before earlier and before that you heard Lord Lamont, two conservative chancellors maybe from different era, but both men of whom actually had to deal with very much the issues of Europe, the pound, the ERM as it was and the euro. There are less than ten hours and Britain goes to the polls. In 23 hours the polls will be just about to close. If voters choose to leave, it will trigger immediate and dramatic changes for markets and politics. We'll look at that in just a moment. It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you tonight from London.