I would vote for Brexit now, admits Remainer minister

Liz Truss changes her mind because Treasury’s ‘dire’ predictions were wrong

A SENIOR Treasury minister who voted Remain yesterday revealed that she has changed her mind on Brexit after her department’s ‘dire’ predictions failed to materialise.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Elizabeth Truss said it was clear the economy had ‘done well’ since the referendum, despite warnings that Britain would be plunged into an immediate recession.

Miss Truss, who was not at the Treasury when it ran its Project Fear campaign warning against leaving the European Union, said that she was now focused on seizing the opportunities Brexit would bring.

‘The facts have changed and I’ve changed my mind,’ she said.

‘What we have seen since the Brexit vote is our economy has done well, we haven’t seen the dire predictions come to pass.’

In the run-up to the referendum in June last year, then- chancellor George Osborne – a key figure in the Remain campaign – used the Treas- ury to produce a string of controversial warnings.

Claims included a prediction that a Brexit vote would spark an ‘immediate’ recession and lead to half a million job losses.

In the event, both the economy and the number of workers have continued to grow.

Miss Truss, who is Chancellor Philip Hammond’s deputy, offered a partial defence for the Treasury, saying: ‘No one has a crystal ball’.

She added: ‘All of us had to make a judgment on what we thought the future would look like.

‘I made a judgment thinking it would be bad for the economy. Since we have left, it has been more positive, so the facts have changed and I have changed my mind.

‘The other thing is that there was a big moment on June 23 when British people voted to leave and it was an expression about what kind of country we wanted to be.

‘ I think that has changed the debate in this country as well.’ Last week Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, another prominent Remainer during the campaign, revealed that he had also changed his mind on Brexit because of the ‘arrogance’ displayed by the EU in negotiations since the Leave vote.

Mr Hunt said he had become a ‘late convert’ to Brexit, adding: ‘Frankly the way the EU Commission has behaved since the referendum has been very disappointing. It’s that arrogance that we’ve seen. Every time we make really generous and open-hearted offers it’s not enough.’

But First Secretary of State Damian Green – effectively Theresa May’s deputy – said that he would still vote to remain in the EU.

He said it ‘would have been better’ if Britain had voted to stay, but added: ‘I argued against it but the country took the decision.

‘I’m a democrat. I respect that decision. It is my public duty now to try and make the best Brexit we can and that’s what I’m trying to do in government.’

Mrs May faced criticism this week after she refused three times to say whether she would now vote to leave the European Union.

The PM, who supported Remain, initially dismissed the question as hypothetical before saying that she would look at the facts and ‘come to a judgment’ before deciding which way to cast her vote.

The SNP’s parliamentary leader Ian Blackford rounded on her yesterday, saying she was ‘hamstrung’ by Tory divisions on the issue.

But Mrs May hit back, saying: ‘There is no second referendum.

‘The people of the United Kingdom voted and we will be leaving the EU in March 2019.’

A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn, who said that he backed Remain last year, declined to say which way the Labour leader would vote if there was another referendum.

The spokesman said: ‘ There isn’t any referendum in prospect and nor do we support one.’ He added that Mrs May’s response showed ‘ she clearly has no confidence in her own negotiating platform’.

‘The facts have changed’