This was Project Fear’s last big chance

THE Treasury’s doom-laden document landed only four days before purdah formally begins on Friday.

During the purdah period, the prime Minister and other pro-Brexit campaigners will be banned from using the civil service machine to make their case.

Until now, they have been free to use Government resources to bombard the public with pro-EU messages. Notoriously, No10 spent £9.3million of taxpayers’ money sending a leaflet to every UK household, insisting Britain would be better off staying in.

This has handed the Remain campaign a huge financial advantage and led to anger among Conservative backbenchers. The start of purdah is also controversially close to postal votes being sent out. They will start being distributed on Friday.

Following the publication of the Treasury’s first dossier on Brexit – which claimed every household would be £4,300 worse off – the Remain camp enjoyed a week-long spike in the polls. The Government will be hoping people fill out postal votes while warnings of job losses, falls in house prices and a rising cost of living are still fresh in their minds.

When it was introduced, the EU Referen- dum Bill said purdah rules should not apply to the referendum, triggering a Tory backbench revolt and forcing No10 to back down. Mps have vowed to watch ‘like hawks’ to ensure the rules are adhered to.

Leave campaigners are concerned Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood – dubbed Sir Cover-Up – will be the referee in any disputes. Mps are unhappy he has not stepped in to stop civil servants producing the likes of George Osborne’s two ‘dodgy dossiers’.

Normally, purdah – from the persian for veil – applies in local and general elections. In this case it does not mean politicians will stop campaigning. It simply means civil servants and the Government machine will not be able to help them make their case.