How LEAVE responds to authority interventions that it doesn’t like
Alastair Meeks goes through them one by one
| Authority figure | Intervention | Leave response |
| OECD | Leaving the EU was “equivalent to missing out on one month’s income within four years”. On a central scenario it estimated that the uncertainty caused by Britain seeking to leave the EU by late 2018 would knock 3 per cent off gross domestic product by 2020. |
Robert Oxley, Vote Leave spokesman:”The OECD is in the pay of the EU. JoséÁngelGurríais part of a global bureaucracy that feathers its nest with vast expenses claims paid for by taxpayers. OECD officials themselves avoid paying tax in most countries — he is in no place to lecture us about taxes.” |
| IMF | The UK’s exit from the European Union could cause “severe regional and global damage”. | Matthew Elliot, Vote Leave chief executive:”The IMF has talked down the British economy in the past and now it is doing it again at the request of our own Chancellor. It was wrong then and it is wrong now”. NigelFarage:the IMF has “lost its way” in recent years and has been “effectively hijacked”. |
| ChristineLagarde | Introducing the IMF’s latest findings, she stated that the IMF found nothing positive for Britain leaving the EU:the consequences are “always on the negative side”. The impact on the economy fromBrexitranges from “pretty bad to very, very bad”. |
PritiPatel MP:”The EU-funded IMF should not interfere in our democratic debate a week before polling day. It appears the Chancellor is cashing in favours to MsLagardein order to encourage the IMF to bully the British people”. |
| MarkCarney, Governor of the Bank of England | Avote on June 23 toleave the EUwould expose the UK to a “material slowdown in growth”, could “possibly include a technical recession” anda “notable rise in inflation”. | Jacob Rees-MoggMP called on him to resign. Iain Duncan Smith said that Mr Carney needed to be “very careful” about making such comments. |
| NIESR | In the short run UK GDP growth would be 1.9 per cent in 2017, rather than the 2.7 per cent that could be expected if Britons voted toremain. In the longer run UK GDP would be between 1.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent smaller by 2030 relative to a world in which Britain stayed in the trading bloc. |
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Vote Leave: “TheNIESRsaid we would have to rejoin the European Exchange Rate Mechanismand then claimed we would benefit if we scrapped the pound. Both of those recommendations would have resulted in disaster. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.” |
| Treasury | Asa central estimate,Brexitwould ultimately lower UK economic outputby6.2 per cent, amounting to an annual cost to British households of£4,300 a year. | Lord Lawson: “It is a piece of propaganda and scaremongering”. |
| Barack Obama | I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, theEuropean Union, to get a trade agreement done”. “The UK is going to be in the back of the queue.” |
Boris Johnson referred to “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire” and accused him of hypocrisy. |
| John Kerry | “The United States has a profound interest in your success, as we do in a very strong United Kingdom staying in a strong EU.” | Leave.EU spokesman Jack Montgomery: “It might be convenient forJohn Kerry, who has repeatedly declined to support the UK in the Falklands, for us to be in the EU, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us.” |
| BaronEvans, Dame ElizabethManningham-Bullerand Sir JohnSawers(former heads of MI5 and MI6) | Leaving the EU could undermine “our ability to protect ourselves” from terrorists. “To leave would present real risks to our security and safety” |
Julian Lewis MP:‘I can only wonder if there’s some sort of manipulation going on here.’ |
| ITV | SelectedNigelFarageto appear in debate programme rather than Michael Gove or Boris Johnson. | Official Vote Leave response: “The Establishment has tried everything from spending taxpayers money on pro-EU propaganda to funding the IN campaign via Goldman Sachs. The polls have stayed fiftyfifty. They’re now fixing the debates to shut out the official campaign. ITV is led by people like RobertPestonwho campaigned for Britain to join the Euro. ITV has lied to us in private while secretlystitching up a deal with Cameron to stop Boris Johnson or Michael Gove debating the issues properly. ITV has effectively joined the official IN campaign and there will be consequences for its future – the people in No10 won’t be there for long”. |