'Rubbish!' IDS slams Labour for TALKING DOWN the UK's Brexit strategy
IAIN DUNCAN SMITH called out the Labour party for allegedly attempting to thwart Brexit with a swathe of amendment to the Government's Brexit bill.
The Tory MP took a dig at the Labour Party for questioning Chancellor Philip Hammond's decision to set aside £3bn over the course of two years to use in preparation for Brexit.
He said: "The Labour party is saying this is about spending that shouldn’t be there: all the spending at the moment is about making our system more efficient, better, enabling us to get in trade much quicker which is benefit the poorest in society, as food costs come down as we leave the European Union.
"Rubbish! The Labour party is in a very peculiar position because they say they accept the vote of the public, they say they are in favour but every single amendment they put down – every single argument they’ve made – actually tends towards the idea that they don’t actually want it.
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"And they went around during the last election telling lots and lots of their voters – some of their traditional voters – that they were in favour of it but in actual facts, since then, they have done everything they can to slow the process down. The reality has nothing to do with that."
Mr Hammond's extra cash for Brexit preparations over the next two year was a key measure in a £25billion Budget spending splurge designed to get Britain "fit for the future."
Speaking to TalkRadio, the former Tory leader also suggested the Treasury had been consistently wrong in its analysis of the effects of Brexit on the UK's economy, adding that the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) had also shown too much pessimism on the matter.
He said: "Pretty much every forecast made by the Treasury has been wrong.
"Even the OBR’s forecast – which I think, by the way, is overly pessimistic and a lot of economists agree with that view – have said there is literally zero effect on the economy in this forecast for Brexit."
Mr Duncan Smith said Brexit's impact on the economy as a whole remains still uncertain and effects could go both ways.
He continued: "It could be very positive. They said it could have some negative elements, it could bring a lot more money in. Nobody knows what that will be and therefore what they are forecasting is that the effect will be basically neutral."
The Chancellor also scrapped Stamp Duty for first-time buyers purchasing properties worth under £300,000 in a radical move.
