Nigel Farage has criticised the government’s worst-case-scenario projections of the immediate aftermath of a no deal Brexit as “utter tosh” and “Project Fear mark II”.
On Wednesday, the government was forced to release its war-gaming projections, a document entitled Operation Yellowhammer, which was produced by the anti-Brexit Civil Service under the premiership of Remainer Theresa May.
The doomsday predictions outlined therein were condemned by Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who told ITV’s Robert Peston last night: “I’ve never seen such utter tosh in my entire life. Unlike these civil servants, sitting in Whitehall, I’ve spent 20 years in international trade, buying and selling goods and shipping them all over the world.
“The idea — given that there are over 100 active ports in the United Kingdom — that even if there was a problem at Dover there would be food shortages is complete and utter rubbish,” Mr Farage said, after both British and French port officials have debunked predicted delays at Dover in the event of a no deal, with Calais’s Jean-Marc Puissesseau calling such claims “la bullshit”.
“It’s Project Fear mark II. It should be completely, utterly, totally, disregarded,” Mr Farage added.
The government has as much admitted that the predictions are far out of date, with Michael Gove, the minister in charge of Brexit planning, stating “revised assumptions” will be published in due course, with a government spokesman saying the document was the “worst case scenario on steroids”.
Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney remarked on the fervour with which Remainers seized the report, saying: “Isn’t it funny how the doom-mongers of Project Fear have spent the past three years not believing a single word the Tories say on Brexit…Yet suddenly now they take Operation Yellowhammer as 100 per cent gospel?”