£135bn windfall when UK leaves

The government can look forward to a post-Brexit windfall worth £135billion after the UK leaves the European Union, a new report is claiming.

Economists for Free Trade (EFT) says Brexit will be “overwhelmingly positive” for the British economy provided the government adopts the right policies.

The findings are sharply at odds with most mainstream economists who have warned the UK faces lower growth and more pressure on the public finances as a result of the vote to leave.

But at the report’s launch today the pro-Brexit Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg will say official forecasts are based on “false assumptions” of the Treasury and that the outlook for the public finances is “much better” than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is predicting.

EFT, headed by Professor Patrick Minford, says the priority for the government should be to bring down trade barriers with the rest of the world once Britain has left the EU while reducing the burden of regulation and taxation on firms and individuals.

It argues a “dynamic stimulus from classic free trade” combined with continued restraint in public spending could provide “post-Brexit fiscal freedom” worth £135billion between 2020 and 2025, with a further £40billion a year from 2025. Mr Rees-Mogg will say: “This is a free trade approach that focuses on consumers, not producers; one that will generate gains to consumers seven times the cost to producers.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg