CBI confidence vote outcome 'not a given', warns president Brian McBride

But writing in the Financial Times ahead of the crunch vote, president Brian McBride said: “To members, as well as the wider business community, I want to say that the outcome of Tuesday’s vote isn’t a given.

"We don’t take the result for granted and we need you to support our plan — not just to get the organisation back on its feet but to build on our strengths, overhaul our weaknesses and create a CBI that works better for our staff, our members and firms across all sectors, regions and nations.”

Even if it wins with the vote, the CBI needs to re-establish a working relationship with Government for its long-term survival.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in April there was “no point engaging with the CBI when their own members have deserted them in droves”.

A person at one large member that paused its association with the CBI told the Financial Times that “Hunt probably holds its future in his hands”.

It comes following the launch of a rival new business group involving corporate giants such as BP and Heathrow ahead of the D-Day vote.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has set up the Business Council with a mission to “design and drive the future of the British economy”.

It said founding members include some of the UK’s biggest companies, including FTSE 100 oil giant BP, Heathrow, Holiday Inn owner IHG Hotels & Resorts and power station firm Drax.

The BCC’s director-general, Shevaun Haviland, and president Baroness Martha Lane Fox gathered business leaders for a roundtable meeting in London on Monday to discuss the new business group offering.

Baroness Lane Fox told Times Radio that business needs to be represented “coherently and well”.

“It’s really important right now that business has a voice in government,” she said. “We need to make sure the needs of business people are represented – not because of corporate greed – 30 per cent of people in this country work in business.

“We must make sure, whatever happens to the CBI, the BCC continues to represent business coherently and well.”

A person close to the CBI told the Financial Times that the timing of the new BCC group was “very opportunistic”.

CBI members will vote on a new prospectus, which includes appointing a new president and giving members an annual vote on the make-up of its board, following claims of sexual harassment at the CBI made by more than a dozen women, with two separate allegations of rape.

Around a dozen firms, including engineering giant Siemens, Microsoft and oil firm Esso, signed a joint letter published in The Times yesterday backing the CBI.

Former CBI head Tony Danker was dismissed on April 11 following complaints made against him, including one sexual harassment claim.

Mr Danker told the BBC his name had been wrongly associated with separate claims, including the alleged rapes which reportedly happened before he joined the CBI.