Lord Lamont LAMBASTS Remoaner Philip Hammond over ‘DOOM AND GLOOM’ Brexit forecasts
FORMER Chancellor Lord Lamont has attacked Philip Hammond over the Treasury’s “doom and gloom” Brexit forecasts, after separate analyses predicted the UK economy will benefit from “strong positive growth”.
Norman Lamont, who served under John Major, said it was “puzzling” that the Treasury’s Brexit forecasts use “the same model” as Brexit backing economists but have “wildly different results”.
Lord Lamont said: “The Treasury forecasts doom and gloom and negative growth from a Canadian or World Trade Organisation deal, while the EFT see such deals as leading to strong positive growth.”
The pro-Brexit Economists for Free Trade (EFT) group, whom Mr Hammond said had based their figures on presumptions “wildly out of line” with other economic models, has proposed an “open debate” with the Chancellor at the Conservative Party conference.
The former Chancellor told the Daily Telegraph: “As always it depends on the assumptions fed into the model.
“The EFT are doing a public service by proposing an open debate to get to the bottom of this mystery.”
An EFT document says “pessimistic” Treasury modelling “assumes trade barriers will spring up between Britain and the EU” if a Canada-style deal or a ‘no-deal’ Brexit happen.