Senior Lecturer in Economics Dr Amanda Gosling says the government may be avoiding confirming that Brexit will have a negative impact across a range of sectors, as previous reports have suggested.
‘The overall impact was very well modelled before the referendum by groups at the LSE and National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Indeed NIESR has a presentation today that looks at the potential impact. The findings are that it will cost a lot and the further we move away from the single market the higher the costs will be.
‘Thus if the impact statements contained any new information they would be more along the lines of quantifying the distribution of losses across sectors which might be a little politically embarrassing.
‘The fact that these impact assessments have not been done suggests either that they are unprepared and “trying to wing it” and/or that the government does not take systematic evidence seriously. Statements like “I am not a fan of economic models” suggest that the latter is true at least in part.’
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