Tebbit on EU: Don’t trust economists – they said Thatcher would leave UK on its knees
NORMAN Tebbit has hit out at the economists who have said Britain can’t stand on its own two feet.
Norman Tebbit has taken a stand against anti-Brexit economists
The former Conservative Party chairman and arch-Thatcherite said the academics who opposed Brexit had echoes in the past when 364 economists in 1981 said Margaret Thatcher’s economic policy would lead to disaster.
Lord Tebbit said: “A lot of people at the time took their views very seriously, and indeed, it proved to be wrong by Margaret Thatcher getting re-elected.
Norman Tebbit was a key Thatcher ally in the 1980s
The economists have got it pretty wrong
“They are just offering an opinion and on the whole the economists have got it pretty wrong.
“If you look at a whole in their advising in the continent, there’s terrible unemployment, and if they had a record of success in these matters I might listen to them.”
Norman Tebbit is a staunch Eurosceptic
The former Employment Secretary’s claims come after a poll found 88 per cent of economists thought a vote to leave the EU in the referendum of Thursday, June 23, would damage the UK’s economy.
The survey, conducted by the Royal Economic Society and the Society of Business Economists, found that only five per cent of respondents thought Brexit would boost the economy.
Paul Johnson, director of independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the findings showed a surprising level of consensus.
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He said: “For a profession known to agree about little, it is pretty remarkable to see this degree of consensus about anything.
“It no doubt reflects the level of agreement among many economists about the benefits of free trade and the costs of uncertainty for economic growth.”
But Tory MP Nadine Dorries made a powerful point when she said: “The economists stating we would be better off in the EU also wanted us to join the euro.”