A district MP – the first to call for Britain to leave the European Union twelve years ago – has accused civil servants of peddling out “dodgy figures” in an attempt to reverse the referendum decision.
Shipley MP Philip Davies said an analysis for Government over how Britain will cope after it leaves the EU was “not a news story” more of an attempt by those wanting to remain in the EU, often dubbed Remoaners, to “regurgitate” the claims.
He made the comments in Parliament during an urgent question on the Government’s analysis of long-term economic impact of Brexit, following a leaked Government analysis which claims the economy will be worse off after Brexit.
Mr Davies said: “We have here some London centric Remoaners, in the civil service who didn’t want us to leave the European Union in the first place, and put together some dodgy figures to back up their case, who still do not want us to leave the European Union and are regurgitating some dodgy figures in order to reverse the result of the referendum.”
Mr Davies questioned if ministers agreed with him adding: “And to that extent this is not any news story whatsoever.”
Exiting the EU Minister Steve Baker said: “I am very proud of the officials with who I work and the commitment they are demonstrating on delivering on the decision, irrespective of how they voted, but it is of course the intention of our current analysis to improve on what has gone before. As I set out in my response we do recognise there were flaws in the previous approach.”
The EU Exit Analysis – Cross Whitehall Briefing dated January 2018 was leaked to an online news site.