Jacob Rees-Mogg’s latest attempts to swerve questions about how post-Brexit Britain is faring definitely did not go down very well on BBC Newsnight on Monday.
The Brexit opportunities minister was attempting to derail the warnings from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) during an appearance on the late night BBC show yesterday, when he suddenly brought up necromancy.
This is a supposedly magical practice where people attempt to communicate with the dead.
The strange exchange began when host Kirsty Wark put it to Rees-Mogg that Brexit had not delivered in the way that Eurosceptics – such as himself – had promised.
She said: “There are more vacancies than there are unemployed people all over the country.
“You want growth, you want development, you have a 4% GDP problem, according to your own independent forecasters [OBR].”
The official OBR forecast explains: “Since our first post-EU referendum EFO in November 2016, our forecasts have assumed that total UK imports and exports will eventually both be 15% lower than had we stayed in the EU.
“This reduction in trade intensity drives the 4% reduction in long-run potential productivity we assume will eventually result from our departure from the EU.”
As Rees-Mogg tried to cut in, Wark quickly pointed out that the OBR is the government’s official forecasters.
“[But] it’s always been wrong,” Rees-Mogg insisted.
“There are restaurants closed everywhere, there are bus service [delays] because you cannot get employees,” Wark continued.
However, Rees-Mogg replied: “The OBR has never got a forecast right, so taking it as holy [grail] is a mistake.
“That’s a matter for the chancellor, but the OBR’s never got a forecast right.”
He then continued to rebuff Wark’s claims, alleging employment issues “do not just affect the UK” as there is a shortage of lorry drivers across Europe.
The minister said: “The issue is how do you get people back into work? There are over eight million people resident in this country who are economically inactive and the number has been rising.
“Lots of people post-pandemic haven’t come back into the work office.”
The Newsnight host then said: “I would just like to remind you that the OBR is the government’s official measure.”
“Yes but it’s always wrong.”
Glancing away for a brief moment of confusion, Wark asked: “So does Boris Johnson not believe in it? Is it only you that doesn’t believe in it?”
“Well, you’ll have to answer the prime minister, but they are forecasters. Forecasting is as accurate as necromancy.
“It doesn’t actually get things right.”
Rees-Mogg’s bizarre response comes after he confirmed that the government has no plans to assess if Brexit is a success or not.
Asked by HuffPost UK how voters are supposed to assess whether Brexit was worthwhile, the minister said: “I’ve always thought it’s all about democracy. Can you change your government, can you make decisions about how you are governed?
“That is the big and overwhelming advantage of Brexit, and then you come to the debate as to whether democracy also makes you more prosperous and I think it does and there’s a great deal of evidence for that.”
Last month, the minister also tried to list the Brexit benefits which we will see in our everyday lives, and mentioned discounts on fish fingers and cheese.
With the sixth anniversary of the EU referendum vote passing back in June, the topic of rejoining the bloc has returned – although the leader of the opposition, Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer, also ruled it out altogether on Monday.