Brexit has cost the British economy £100bn a year, according to think tank economists and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The claims, made last year, prompted Remain supporters to continue to push the narrative that Brexit has hurt the British economy.
Broadcaster Matthew Wright said during an LBC show in November that he had limited sympathy for Brexit-backing farmers demonstrating against Rachel Reeves’ decision to slap them with inheritance tax, as she was merely trying to redress the shortfall in the Treasury caused by Britain leaving the EU.
“Most farmers voted for Brexit”, he said, adding: “Had they not this country wouldn’t be £100bn a year worse off as far as trade with the EU goes and Rachel Reeves wouldn’t necessarily be looking at taxing family farms to make up the difference… it does beg the question whether farmers are simply reaping what they sowed.”
However, one top economist has questioned whether the £100bn figure is right in the first place.
Julian Jessop, writing in The Telegraph, says the claim is based on “dodgy numbers” and Remainers have been spouting them “without caring where they have come from”.
The economist said that the OBR’s assessment is based on a variety of “assumptions”, many of which are “weakly supported by the actual data – if at all.”
Mr Jessop also took aim at economist John Springford from the Centre for European Reform too, branding his results “unreliable”.
Attacking his research, Mr Jessop writes: “It is reasonable to assess the impact of Brexit by comparing the performance of the UK economy to that of its peers. Indeed, almost every claim made by both sides makes some sort of assumption about what would have happened if we had not left.
“Instead, the fundamental flaw in these studies is that they assume that any divergence in economic performance between the UK and the control group can only be due to Brexit. This is clearly nonsense.”
He continued: “It glosses over the impact of other shocks – notably the pandemic and the global energy crisis – which are bound to have affected different economies in different ways. It also ignores any other national factors – notably in fiscal and monetary policy – and downplays differences in the economic and political cycles.”
Summing up his argument, Mr Jessop said: “Unfortunately, Rejoiners prefer to toss big numbers around for the cost of Brexit with no attempt to understand where they came from, let alone their limitations. The dodgy £100bn is one of many examples.”
