“Economists for Brexit”, which will be launched later this morning, states that leaving would result in lower prices for consumers and also allow businesses to hire employees from around the world to address skills shortages.
CityAm reports that the group of eight, which includes Gerard Lyons, chief economic adviser to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who has written extensively about the economic effects of Brexit, argue that because the EU is a “customs union” it artificially inflates the prices of agricultural and manufacturing goods.
Food prices, Lyons argued on BBC Radio 5 this morning, are around “10 to 20 per cent higher” than they should be because of the EU’s protectionist policies.
“The EU is a customs union. When you’re taught economics at university, apart from high unemployment and high inflation the next evil down the list is a customs union … it discriminates against consumers and protects those areas behind the tariff. If we were to leave the EU … agricultural prices would fall.”
London’s status as the premier financial centre, would also be protected in the event of Brexit, the report claims.
Lyons added: “London has the depth of knowledge skills and experience that has held it very well as a financial centre… London will remain the global financial centre of the future.
“Because the single market doesn’t work very well in terms of services … [the City] is likely to benefit [from Brexit].”
The report comes just one day after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that a vote to leave the European Union could cost every UK family the equivalent of one month’s wages in lost economic output.
