May I have this dance?
● Chancellor’s warning of ‘fiscal consequences’ earns May rebuke
Theresa May marked the first day of her visit to South Africa by dancing with pupils and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has dismissed warnings from Cabinet colleague Philip Hammond over the long-term impacts of a nodeal Brexit.
Dr Fox, who is in Singapore touting UK trade opportunities to Asian governments and businesses, said the Chancellor’s warning that GDP could fall and borrowing could be around £80 billion a year higher by 2033-34 if Britain resorted to WTO terms was “hard to swallow”.
His comments came after Theresa May poured cold water on the warning – stating that no agreement with the EU “would not be a walk in the park” but “wouldn’t be the end of the world”.
Dr Fox said: “Some of us remember the supposed economic shock we were going to get if Britain voted to leave the European Union and the result of the referendum itself was going to cost us half a million jobs, it was going to see investors desert the UK and our economy plunge into recession.
“What has in fact happened: We’ve added 600,000 jobs to the economy, we saw a record number of inward investment projects land in the UK last year and our economy has continued to grow.”
He added: “That was over a two-year time horizon, so projections over a 15-year time horizon are rather hard to swallow.”
The Chancellor was accused by Tory backbenchers of launching another “project fear” by referring to disputed provisional analysis. Mr Hammond said such an impact on GDP would have “large fiscal consequences”.
Mrs May, asked about the timing and content of Mr Hammond’s intervention, said she had previously labelled the data as a work in progress.
Speaking to reporters on her trade mission to Africa, the prime minister added: “Look at what the director of the World Trade Organisation has said.
“He said about a no-deal situation that it would not be a walk in the park, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“What the government is doing is putting in place the preparations such that if we’re in that situation we can make a success of it, just as we will make a success of the good deal I believe we’re able to get and the good deal we’re working to get.”
Mrs may was also challenged on whether she would order her MPS to vote for no deal if her preferred approach – agreed following talks at Chequers – was not secured with the EU.
She replied: “I believe what we’ve set out in the Chequers arrangement, set out in the white paper, is a deal that benefits not just the United Kingdom but benefits the European Union as well.”