New anger at Carney’s Brexit claim

FORMER Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has been accused of getting his facts wrong after he made a controversial claim about Brexit.

Leading economists said Mr Carney was talking ‘nonsense’ after he said the UK’s performance had significantly lagged Germany’s after Brexit.

In a Financial Times interview Carney, who advocated staying in the EU, claimed that ‘in 2016 the British economy was 90 per cent of Germany’s. Now it is less than 70 per cent’.

Mr Carney repeated the erroneous assertion last week on the BBC Radio 4’s Today.

Last night, experts said Carney should get his facts straight.

‘Carney’s calculations are simply wrong,’ said economist Julian Jessop. ‘This isn’t just a technical debate. He’s measured the size of the UK and German economies in different ways.’

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, said of Mr Carney’s claim: ‘It’s just not remotely in the realms of plausibility and it’s not constructive.’