The economy will grow more slowly outside the EU even if the UK manages to strike a final deal with Brussels reveals a leaked government report on the different Brexit scenarios.
The nation’s income would be 5 % lower in 15 years time with a free trade agreement with the EU.
It will be 8% lower if the UK departs from EU regulations in a no deal scenario.
And 2% lower if Britain manages to keep single market membership.
The embarrassing revelations in the Government’s secret study come as Theresa May faces both skepticism over Brexit and less confidence than ever within her own party.
The Times reports senior party donors wanting her to quit.
And Tory ministers face difficult questions about why 20 Conservative figures were caught profiting over Brexit, taking payments to give corporations a steer on Brexit in a Sunday Times / Dispatches investigation this weekend, while keeping such reports secret from the public.
The leaked secret study was meant to be shown confidentially to cabinet ministers this week.
The Conservatives have been denying the contents of their report this morning.
Iain Duncan Smith told Radio 4 this morning repeatedly: “we should push it to one side” as the report had not been validated by ministers.
Liam Fox urged Tory MPs to live with disappointment and unite behind Theresa May.
“We are going to have to live with disappointment” he told the Sun in an interview.
The Brexit impact study which had been meant only for ministers found that Britain will be worse off under every possible Brexit scenario with the benefits of new trade deals not covering the losses from leaving the European Union. New trade deals are set to add just 0.3% to GDP in the long-term.
The document leaked to Buzzfeed news says, food and drink, cars, retail, chemicals, clothing and manufacturing would be hardest hit and every UK region would be affected negatively with the north-east, the West Midlands and Northern Ireland suffering worst.
It comes after Brexit minister David Davis fought fellow parliamentarians not to release the government’s impact assessments covering 58 sectors of the economy, even claiming they did not in fact exist.
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