MPs have warned that Theresa May is leading the country towards “economic disaster” after Mark Carney reportedly told Cabinet ministers that house prices would fall by 35% if the UK leaves the EU without a deal with Brussels.
According to the Times, the governor of the Bank of England briefed senior Tories on Thursday that a chaotic no-deal Brexit would lead to spiralling mortgage rates crashing the housing market, with house prices expected to drop by more than a third over three years.
Carney also told ministers that the Bank of England would not be able to offset the economic chaos by cutting interest rates as it did after the 2016 EU referendum, the Financial Times reported.
His comments are said to have been made during a special Cabinet meeting on the latest Brexit preparations chaired by the Prime Minister. The Bank of England has declined to comment on the briefing.
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, who works with the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, said May would “rue this day” and warned that the “party of the property-owning democracy” was now hurting its own voters.
“We are now six months away from Brexit and people up and down the country are fearful for what the future brings. No-deal Brexit or even the Prime Minister’s potential deal will leave Britain poorer, weaker and more isolated,” he said.
May’s decisions on Brexit “threaten to tear the Tories asunder”, Brake added.
On Tuesday night, around 50 members of the powerful Economic Research Group - who want May to ditch her Chequers plan for Brexit - met, with some said to have been openly pushing for the Prime Minister to be ousted.
While May vowed to fight any leadership challenge, a day later around 80 Tory MPs from the moderate wing of the party held talks as part of a fight back against their right-wing colleagues.
Labour MP Ian Murray called Carney’s alleged comments an “incredible warning”.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “Are we really, as a country, going to go down this road? Surely nobody voted to be poorer, let alone this poorer [sic].”
Thursday also saw the government publish its latest contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit, including fears that crashing out of the EU could limit the UK’s ability to spot space debris crashing to Earth.
Another document revealed today that around 15% of mobile phone users could face a return to EU data roaming charges unless phone companies come into like with a government agreement on the terms of a no-deal Brexit.