Suella Braverman was unable to identify a single industry that has benefitted as a result of Britain’s split with the European Union in an excruciating interview.
The former home secretary joined Nick Robinson on Radio 4 after a deputy governor of the Bank of England said Brexit has had a “chilling” effect on business investment in the UK.
Dave Ramsden, the Bank’s deputy governor for markets and banking, said the fallout from the 2016 referendum had stalled investment levels compared with other leading nations and contributed to a lower “speed limit” for the UK economy.
“It’s hard to conclude otherwise, that the decision to leave the EU – that may have had lots of goods reasons for it – but that it has chilled business investment,” he said.
Business investment is now only 6 per cent higher in real terms than in the second quarter of 2016, when the Brexit referendum was held, Ramsden added.
“That’s less than 1 per cent a year. Over that time, US business investment has gone up by over 25 per cent,” he said.
Pressed on the economic benefits of the split Braverman struggled to conjure anything up. Watch the interview in full below:
Related: Tories have squandered eye-watering £100 billion of taxpayer cash in four years – report