Sadiq Kahn, the Mayor of London commissioned and released a report on the impact of Brexit on London. conducted by Cambridge Econometrics. This report was discussed at the London Assembly Economy Committee; I am trying to get the minutes or better the video recording. The Mayor issued a press release, on the report, entitled, New report reveals UK economy is almost £140billion smaller because of Brexit. I have collected some press releases, and article, to help me reply to Will Dunn, who it seems is part of the conspiracy to not talk about Brexit.
Politico preview Khan’s speech in which he was expected to say,
“No one wants to see a return to the division and deadlock that dominated our body politic for five long years,” Khan will tell business leaders in a speech at Mansion House in the City of London.
“However, the inescapable truth is that this unnecessarily hard-line version of Brexit is having a detrimental effect on our capital and country — at a time when we can least afford it.
“We can’t – in all good conscience – pretend that it isn’t hurting our people and harming our businesses. As Mayor of this great city, choosing not to say anything would be a dereliction of duty.”
Sadiq Kahn – Politico
This was reported on and in, various sites and news papers, who mainly repeat the press release and speech,
- Sadiq Khan to attack Brexit with new research on economic damage in the FT, who say, “Last November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) estimated the negative impact of Brexit at 5 per cent to 6 per cent of gross domestic product by 2035. The Cambridge report estimated the hit to GDP at 10 per cent.”
- Brexit dragging down London economy, says capital’s mayor by the BBC
- London mayor says Brexit has cost UK over $178 billion so far by Reuters
- Brexit ‘isn’t working’, says London mayor from Euractiv
Will Dunn, business editor of the New Statesman took a different approach, in a morning call article, Morning Call: Khan’s Brexit BS . Dunn contests the statistics in the Report and quotes P. Jonathan Portes in contradicting the immigration findings, and Gerard Lyons, who was Boris Johnson’s chief economic adviser in City Hall and one of the few economists to support Brexit, was clear before the referendum that Brexit would have an impact and so a quote and opinion that is over 8 years old. Again, the polemic confuses their political judgement of political cost vs the damage that Brexit has done. Although the article makes no claim to even handedness, the use of quotes this way falls into the trap identified by Emily Maitlis, who criticised the BBC for “both-sideism” in its coverage of Brexit – suggesting its attempts to hear both sides of the argument led to “superficial balance”. She is quoted as saying, “It might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it. But by the time we went on air we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn’t.”
When writing motions last year for London Labour conference, I looked at the impact of the docks on London’s economy noting that London was the biggest sea port in the country and Brexit has also impacted, the NHS, and hospitality due to labour and skills shortages and also banking & finance, and higher education.