UK better placed to cope with Brexit than I thought, admits former Tory Treasury minister and leading Remainer

A former Tory Treasury minister who attacked the Government’s Brexit strategy as “mad” has admitted that Britain is better placed to cope with its withdrawal from the European Union than he previously thought.

Lord Jim O’Neill, who worked at the Treasury under George Osborne and quit the Government in September 2016, said stronger than expected global economic growth would likely result in improved prospects for the UK.

Asked if his optimistic forecasts showed that he had been too pessimistic about Brexit, the Remain supporter told the BBC: “I'm almost embarrassed to accept that it might sound like that.

"Because of course in principle I share the views of many that Brexit is a really weird thing for the UK to impose on itself from an economic perspective.

"And maybe this [better global growth] means the country's going to be able to cope with Brexit better than certainly somebody like me might have thought some time ago.

"But I would quickly add at the same time, I have felt for a good couple of years, as important as Brexit is, it isn't the most important thing facing Britain's future."

Lord O’Neill said he “certainly wouldn't have thought the UK economy would be as robust as it currently seems".

But he insisted that Britain’s economy would be in an even stronger position if Brexit was not going ahead.

He said his comments were likely to prompt Brexiteers to act like “the cat with the cream” but that any suggestion that he had been wrong about the UK leaving the EU would be “ridiculous”.

Lord O’Neill quit the Tory benches when he resigned from his ministerial role and now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher where he is free to criticise the Government.

He launched a vicious attack on the Government’s Brexit strategy earlier this month, telling a German newspaper that an apparent focus on securing trade deals with former Commonwealth countries was unwise.

He said: “It's kind of fantasy. This year, China is going to grow by 6.7 per cent.

“In nominal GDP-dollar terms, China will create a new Australia this year. It will create four New Zealands this year.

“And Liam Fox and our ludicrous foreign minister spend half of their life going to New Zealand. It's mad.”

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