UK report says leaving EU would cause decade of uncertainty

Out campaigners have accused the government of launching “Project Fear” and claim the riskier scenario for Britain is staying inside the EU.

The U.K. risks a decade of uncertainty if voters choose to leave the European Union in an in-out referendum in June, according to a government report released Monday.

Researchers at HSBC said the value of the pound against the dollar could plummet by as much as a fifth if market uncertainty around Brexit persists.

“W e have a £50 billion-plus trade deficit with the European Union”.

“We buy far more from them than they buy from us, the jobs at risk if we do not rapidly move to a new trading arrangement are in Bavaria, and in France and in Italy and in Spain…”

“On the issue of the European Union referendum, there is a Government position that the Prime Minister has said to his ministers “I recognise this is an important choice, I recognise your long-standing views so I will give you the option of taking a personal position”, consequently suspending collective responsibility”.

“That’s what we know we’ve got and you could trade all that for massive risk and uncertainty”. The prospect of Brexit threatens to bring that issue back to the table, as Scottish Nationalist Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has warned of another independence referendum if Britain leaves the EU. They are trying to scare the trousers off everybody at the moment, and it’s not working.

They can do this confident in the knowledge that Irish people there won’t be affected by the reduction of welfare benefits for migrants from other EU countries living in the United Kingdom and, for future Irish emigrants, our government can invoke an EU Treaty protocol to exempt them from such cuts under the Common Travel Area agreement that exists between the United Kingdom and Ireland.

But in a furious counterblast, Commons leader Chris Grayling, said: “People will not be impressed with this relentless campaign of fear”. “It is totally irresponsible”, one Cabinet member said.

“It’s only documents to do with the In/Out referendum that those ministers can’t see, just as I can’t see documents drawn up by ministers supporting the Out campaign”.

“What would happen to the two million Brits who live in other places in the European Union?”

“There are real consequences of this for jobs and for livelihoods. [Cabinet Secretary] Jeremy Heywood’s unconstitutional act threatens the reputation of the civil service”, 43-year-old Patel said.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, one of five Cabinet ministers backing “leave”, said he and Eurosceptic colleagues “must have the right to continue to look” at material as he was “constitutionally” in charge of his department. “For an unelected official to prevent them being aware of the information they need for their duties is wrong”.

“Now, those ministers who want to argue another case are being allowed to do so but the civil service can’t support them in doing that”, added the foreign secretary.