Reuters: Treasury Says Pre-Referendum ‘Project Fear’ Forecasts No Longer Valid

Apocalyptic predictions of Britain’s economy collapsing in the event of a vote for Britain to leave the European Union produced by the treasury are no longer valid, a senior civil servant has said.

Reuters reports:

The top official at Britain’s finance ministry said his department’s forecasts of a big hit to the economy from Brexit, made shortly before the June 2016 EU membership referendum, were no longer applicable.

Brexit supporters have long criticised the projections as part of a “Project Fear” they say was led by former prime minister David Cameron and his then-Chancellor George Osborne.

The forecasts said that within 15 years Britain’s economy could be between 3.4 and 9.5 percent smaller if it left the EU than if it had stayed in.

Tom Scholar told lawmakers on Wednesday the forecasts were based on an assumption that Britain would immediately start the process of leaving the European Union, and they did not include any stimulus measures for the economy.

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