Now Osborne says Brexit would hit value of your home

BRITAIN’S overheated housing market could stall or even go into reverse if the UK votes to leave the EU, George Osborne claimed last night.

In his latest dramatic warning about the cost of Brexit, the Chancellor said there would be a ‘hit to the value of people’s homes’ of 1018 per cent by 2018.

The figure would equate to a loss of up to £52,500 on an average UK home costing £292,000.

But the Treasury last night admitted that the forecast related to a fall in predicted growth of house prices, meaning any actual drop would be much lower, or even non- existent.

A Vote Leave campaign source described Mr Osborne’s claims as ‘wilfully misleading’.

The Chancellor’s warning is part of a controversial document published next week on the ‘ economic shock’ that would be caused if Britain votes to leave the EU.

The warning will come just days before the first postal ballots for the referendum are sent out next Friday, fuelling claims that the Chancellor and David Cameron are using Government resources to tilt the referendum campaign unfairly in their favour.

It will also be the last opportunity for the Treasury to intervene in the campaign before purdah starts on Thursday, the period before a poll when Whitehall cannot make announcements that might influence voting. Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom hit back last night, saying: ‘This is an extraordinary claim. The truth is the greatest threat to the economy is the perilous state of the Euro.’ Some Tory MPs are so incensed by the Government’s aggressive campaign that they are now plotting a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister after the referendum.

A number of MPs are already said to be contacting Graham Brady, chairman of the party’s powerful 1922 Committee, to call for the vote. A Tory source told the Daily Mail that dozens more are planning a co- ordinated push against Mr Cameron after the June 23 vote.

Under Tory Party rules, 50 MPs are needed for Mr Brady to trigger a formal confidence vote. One Tory MP said a vote was now ‘inevitable’. ‘Letters are going in to Graham Brady already – people are talking about it quite openly,’ he said. ‘But most of us are holding letters back until after the referendum for maximum impact.’

But Government sources last night said Mr Cameron was ‘getting on with the job of delivering the manifesto’.

In an interview at a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Japan, Mr Osborne told the BBC: ‘If we leave the European Union... Treasury analysis shows that there would be a hit to the value of people’s homes by at least 10 per cent and up to 18 per cent.’

But Office for Budget Responsibility figures suggest prices would rise by 1.4 per cent or fall by 6.6 per cent under the Treasury’s forecast.