FT: Brexit will cost households GBP 4,300 a year

Monday, April 18, 2016 - 15:23 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Leaving the EU would cost households GBP 4,300 a year making them ”permanently poorer,” chancellor George Osborne will say on Monday when the government publishes its long-term assessment of the economic costs of Brexit, according to the Financial Times.
Saying that British people should be ”builders, not wreckers,” the chancellor will say, ”Britain is safer, stronger and better off inside a reformed EU,” FT wrote.
All the alternatives the Treasury modelled show leaving would cost households significant sums, which increase the more distance and barriers are erected between Britain`s trade and that of the EU.
The Treasury expects an exit to cost households 6% by 2030, an annual loss of about GBP 4,300 a year at today`s prices relative to the income level households would have had if Britain remained in the EU.
The assessment comes just days before another controversial intervention in the campaign when U.S. President Barack Obama visits the UK at the end of this week. Mr. Obama is likely to say Britain is Britain is better off in the EU, adding his voice to those of other world leaders who have warned of the dangers of a British exit. Anticipating the Treasury`s assessment, Theresa Villiers, Northern Ireland secretary who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, told Sky News that voters would see through the report.
”The government has made it clear that it is not a neutral bystander so people will judge the statements of the Treasury on that basis,” she said.
The Treasury report and Mr. Osborne`s comments in an article in the Times reject the criticisms of the Leave campaign. ”Those advocating exit have miscalculated their negotiating hand. While 44% of British exports go to the EU, less than 8% of their exports come to us,” Mr. Osborne writes.
”The Treasury analysis shows that under all plausible alternatives to British membership of the EU, we would have a less open and interconnected economy — not just with Europe but, crucially, with the rest of the world,” he added. ”There would be less trade, less investment and less business.”
The Treasury report arrives as the debate is becoming increasingly internationalized. Wolfgang Schauble, Germany`s finance minister, weighed in at the weekend with a warning that Berlin would take a tough stance on future negotiations over the UK`s relationship with the EU if it voted to leave.
Mr. Osborne said he was scolded by other finance ministers at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington last week about the ”immediate short-term shock and instability” if the UK quit the union.
Both David Cameron, prime minister, and Mr. Obama will be questioned on the issue when they hold a joint press conference on Friday.