IMF Head's Warning Of Brexit Trouble Repeat Of Earlier Campaign - UK Communist Party

IMF Head's Warning of Brexit Trouble Repeat of Earlier Campaign - UK Communist Party

The warning of Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that no-deal Brexit could have dire consequences for the UK economy resembles the "scare stories" that were told in the run-up to the 2016 referendum, Robert Griffiths, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), told Sputnik.

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2018) The warning of Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that no-deal Brexit could have dire consequences for the UK economy resembles the "scare stories" that were told in the run-up to the 2016 referendum, Robert Griffiths, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), told Sputnik.

Lagarde said Monday at a press conference in London that all possible Brexit scenarios would be bad for the country's economy and, to a lesser extent, for the European Union. The no-deal scenario would have "very dear economic consequences," according to the IMF chief.

"This is an almost carbon copy of the Project Fear campaign during the [Brexit] referendum. In fact we're now getting the same scares on house prices collapsing and GDP plummeting, so it almost seems like it's a repeat," Griffiths said.

The term Project Fear was used by Brexit supporters in the run-up to the referendum to refer to the descriptions of grim impact of leaving the European Union, which they believed to be unsubstantiated.

The CPB secretary general argued that such stories "about how we're going to be worse off, the planes would stop flying and so on" were nothing new.

"It's just a repeat either to stampede us into a bogus Brexit deal that would keep us aligned to the single market and EU institutions, or it's to pave the way for a second referendum," Griffiths said.

Last week, London Mayor Sadiq Khan called for a second referendum on Brexit, citing the government's failure to negotiate an appropriate deal.

"More than anything else this is indicative of his position as a spokesperson of the City of London ... I think, as it's proving a little difficult, I wouldn't say impossible, to reach an agreement so far on the EU on passporting and City access to the whole range of EU financial instruments and so on, I think there may be a certain mood in the City that if they're not going to be able to negotiate the kind of Brexit that will keep us aligned with the single market, their hope would be that a second referendum would reverse the result," Griffiths said.

The CPB secretary general said the UK financial center might be frustrated over the lack of an agreement on Brexit, and the City's pessimism in this regard made it consider the reversal of Brexit as an option.