Nigel Farage: The Remain campaign is trying to scare you
Nigel Farage has warned that the Remain campaign is increasingly using scare tactics to persuade voters to stay in the EU – as he suggested food and cars will be cheaper in the case of Brexit
In a wide-ranging speech, Farage accused the Remain campaign of a "remorseless torrent of propaganda scaring us", adding that "all sorts of overpaid, useless people at the International Monetary Fund and the OECD and President Obama [are] parroting the Number 10 line".
"Not only is what the Remainians are saying rubbish, but actually the trade deal that we have is a rotten deal," he said.
Read more: Seven reasons Brexiteers are wrong to think EU exit talks would be easy
He pointed out that British consumers will feel the effect of a Brexit.
"[If the UK exits the European Union], food will be cheaper, cars will be cheaper, and even in the worst-case scenario, which is that there is no deal… under WTO [World Trade Organisation] rules, the total amount of tariffs only amounts to two-thirds of our net contribution to this club."
He cited Cardiff University's Professor Patrick Minford, who has hit back at the Treasury's 200-page Brexit forecasts.
In a column for Morning Wire earlier this month, Minford wrote that the EU's "protective wall" is "rather high", and that consumers would be better off without the EU.
"Food prices are nearly 20 per cent higher on average, and average manufactured prices a bit more than 20 per cent higher. Even assuming… that there is some reduction in this protection over time, to say 10 per cent on each, the overall effect of the EU on the consumer shopping basket is to raise it by eight per cent – around £40 a week for the average consumer."
However, Minford's findings appear to directly contradict assertions by HSBC, which has warned that food prices would be pushed up as the retail sector suffers from "cost inflation, reduced demand and [a] contraction in labour supply".