Ministers are today publishing a document that is already being rubbished as a ‘dodgy dossier’ about the options for Brexit. The report, which comes out later, concludes, funnily enough, that all of the alternatives to EU membership would leave Britain ‘weaker, less safe and worse off’ and that ‘no alternative model guarantees that British businesses would have access to Europe’s free trade Single Market, that working people’s jobs would be safe and by how much prices would rise’. Iain Duncan Smith has been sent out to rubbish it, saying:
‘This dodgy dossier won’t fool anyone, and is proof that Remain are in denial about the risks of remaining in a crisis-ridden EU.’
Why are ministers bothering with these sorts of reports? It’s not so much the analysis itself that matters, but the effect of the report once published. It is designed to force the Leave side to spell out what model of Brexit it favours – and this will cause the campaign all manner of problems as its members do not agree on that model.
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