Would the UK be worse off outside the EU?

Date published: 02 February 2018


Editor,

As the Government is about enter the next stage of Brexit negotiations it has been suggested by a leaked official document that the UK economy would be worse off outside the EU under each of the scenarios modelled.

Buzzfeed have said to have seen the document which forecast that UK growth would be 5% lower with a free trade agreement and 8% lower without a trade deal and even 2% lower with continued access to the single market.

Various Government institutions were involved in “Project Fear” prior to the 2016 in/out EU referendum in which we were warned of all kinds of economic disasters if we voted to leave.

The majority voted to leave and no disasters happened, in fact the economy is doing better than predicted with employment up by 102,000 in the last three months along with record VAT receipts and UK growth of GDP of 0.5% in Quarter 4, up slightly on the previous quarter.

There are far greater opportunities which we can and should seize and not be put off by those who feed us scaremongering stories. They need accept our decision to leave and get on with the job.

Phil Griffiths,
(North West political commentator and broadcaster)

The views expressed are those of the author of the letter and not those of Oldham Chronicle.