NEIL Hamilton AM says he would rather place his faith in Mystic Meg than Whitehall when it comes to the figures relating to what the impact of leaving the EU would have.
A leaked Whitehall paper, which looks at the possible hit to GDP over the next decade-and-a-half from Britain leaving the EU, compared with the UK remaining full members of the bloc has revealed that overall, the UK is predicted to suffer a 1.5% drop in GDP while remaining in the EU’s single market via the European Economic Area (EEA), a 5% drop if it agrees a free trade deal, and an 8% drop if Britain leaves the EU without a deal and reverts to trading on World Trade Organisation terms.
In the regional breakdown of Whitehall’s impact assessment of three different Brexit scenarios Wales will suffer a hit to GDP in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit according to the Government’s own analysis.
The figures for Wales are;
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less than 1.5% drop in GDP (EEA membership)
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5% drop in GDP (free trade agreement)
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9% drop in GDP (WTO terms)
Speaking about the figures Neil Hamilton said: “These are the same Whitehall mandarins who have comprehensively got economic projections wrong three months ahead, let alone 15 years. I’d rather rely on Mystic Meg than yet another propaganda exercise by diehard Remainers.”
