BBC’s Project Fear

OF the G7 biggest economies, Britain ranks second in the list of the best in which to do business – streets ahead of every major EU country and beaten only by mighty America.

Don’t take the Mail’s word for it. This is the verdict of the World Bank, in rankings based on such measures as the ease of getting started, availability of credit and structures for enforcing contracts and protecting investors.

With the top five places taken by lesser players such as New Zealand and Denmark, the UK ranks seventh out of 190, just one behind the US. To put this in perspective, Germany trails in 20th position, with France at number 31 and Italy languishing ignominiously at 46.

No wonder banking giants are backpedalling on their threat to move jobs from London to the Continent after Brexit.

Yet this is the moment the BBC chooses to report: ‘The Bank of England believes up to 75,000 jobs could be lost in financial services following Britain’s departure from the EU.’

Leave aside that this figure is plucked from a year-old private study – nothing to do with the Bank – which cited it as the worst case scenario.

With so much set fair for Britain’s prospects after Brexit, isn’t there an increasing air of desperation about Remoaners’ attempts to revive Project Fear? And isn’t it an abuse of the BBC Charter that our national broadcaster has appointed itself scaremonger-in-chief?