Voting to leave the EU would wipe £62,000 off the value of the average home in London, George Osborne said today.
The Chancellor said quitting would be “bad news across the board for London” and would destroy 73,000 jobs in the capital alone, including 8,000 young people aged 18-24.
His warning was based on a Treasury report that forecast between 500,000 and 800,000 jobs would be lost nationally if the public vote to leave on June 23.
It said Brexit would also hit pay packets, making the average family £800 worse off after two years. The study was branded “unfair and biased” by Vote Leave, which accus-ed the Treasury of propaganda.
But in some of his strongest words yet the Chancellor told the Standard that even the mighty London economy would be set back by an exit.
“A vote to Leave on June 23 will be bad news across the board for London, which has always been one of the most outward-facing cities in the world,” he said.
“Today’s analysis from the Treasury suggests that in the first two years 73,000 jobs would be lost in London, average house prices would be hit by £62,000 but mortgages would be more costly for first-time buyers, and across the UK average wages would be hit by almost £800 a year.”
Mr Osborne and David Cameron went to a B&Q centre at Eastleigh to launch the Treasury study, which comes after warnings from the Bank of England governor, the head of the NHS and the IMF. “Turning our backs on the free trade single market would mean us tipping ourselves back into a year-long recession — the first DIY recession in our history,” said Mr Osborne. Mr Cameron said Brexit would be “self-destruction”.
Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the Treasury report was flawed because it only highlighted the risks of leaving the EU.
And Mr Cameron’s former strategy adviser Steve Hilton urged the UK to quit the “arrogant and unaccountable” EU which made Britain “literally un-governable”.Meanwhile a report today said property lettings in central London are already being depressed by jitters about a possible Brexit.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell seized on what he claimed was an admission by Mr Cameron that the last recession was not the fault of Gordon Brown’s Labour government. Mr Cameron told his audience: “This could be, for the first time in history, a recession brought on ourselves. As I stand here in B&Q, it would be a DIY recession.”
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