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Tuesday 04 December 2018 10:25 am  |  Updated:  Monday 03 June 2019 2:51 am

Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King savages May’s Brexit deal

By: James Booth

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The former governor of the Bank of England Lord Mervyn King has slammed Theresa May’s Brexit deal and implicitly criticised his successor Mark Carney.

King called the withdrawal agreement "incompetence of a high order".

“It simply beggars belief that a government could be hell-bent on a deal that hands over £39 billion, while giving the EU both the right to impose laws on the U.K. indefinitely and a veto on ending this state of fiefdom,” he wrote in an article for Bloomberg.

He also implicitly attacked, Carney, his successor as Bank of England governor.

“It saddens me to see the Bank of England unnecessarily drawn into this project,” he said.

He said the Bank's worst case scenario, which shows the cost of leaving without a deal exceeding 10 per cent of gross domestic product, is unrealistic.

He said it is based on the assumptions productivity will fall because of low trade and disruptions at the borders will continue for years.

"Neither is plausible", King said.

“Leaving the EU is not the end of the world, any more than it will deliver the promised land. Nonetheless the country is entitled to expect something better than a muddled commitment to perpetual subordination from which the UK cannot withdraw without the agreement of the EU,” he said.

 

 

 

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