Tories at breaking point over grim predictions in George Osborne’s Brexit dossier

A FURIOUS Tory backlash over George Osborne’s doomsday dossier on Brexit tonight took the party to “breaking point” - as two ministers even threatened to quit.

The Chancellor ignited fresh controversy when he unveiled the grimmest government predictions yet on what would happen immediately after we vote to leave the EU.

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By June 2018, the Treasury’s short term impact report predicted 820,000 jobs could go and the average wage will sink by 4%, or between £800 and £1,040 a year.

Chaos and market uncertainty could also send the pound plummeting by 15% and government borrowing up by £39bn.

And it predicted house prices may tumble by 18%, in all taking as much as 6% off GDP and tipping the UK into a year-long recession.

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The Treasury dossier mapped up two different Brexit scenarios - ‘Shock’ and ‘Severe Shock’ - depending on whether Britain could cut a new trade deal with the EU within the mandated two year deadline.

But Tory MP Marcus Fysh dubbed them in a tweet: “Specious B******* and Severe Specious B*******”.

Aghast Tory grandee Leave campaigners were even joined by some prominent Remainers to slam the extraordinary list of misery.

Mr Osborne insisted while flanked by the PM: “With exactly one month to go to the referendum, the British people must ask themselves this question: Can we knowingly vote for a recession?”

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As the duo visited B&Q’s headquarters in Eastleigh, Hampshire, David Cameron branded a Leave vote “the self destruct option” when “businesses freeze up, confidence drains, and uncertainty clouds over”.

The PM added: “The stakes couldn’t be higher, the risks couldn’t be greater”.

But former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson accused the him “assuming a disaster “scare the pants off the British people”.

And pro-EU Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Mr Osborne’s bleak numbers were “overblown claims” that risked backfiring by “insulting people’s intelligence”.

The Sun has been told two irate ministers – one senior and the other more junior - told Brexiteer MP pals that they were considering resigning in protest during a group conversation in the Commons.

Another junior minister told The Sun tonight: “How the f*** are they going to put the party back together after all this? It’s at breaking point now.

“There are some very principled colleagues backing Brexit who are just spitting today. George has gone too far this time.”

A second Tory Chancellor, Lord Lamont, accused Mr Osborne of recklessly talking Britain’s economy into a disaster if the UK does vote to walkaway from Brussels, adding: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself – which the Government is doing its best to stir up”.

Boris Johnson said the bleak projection was “not believable” and “a hoax”, and were “in danger of talking this country down”.

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And the former Tory London mayor drew attention to the PM’s different previous remarks, saying: “Only a few months ago, he was saying of course we would do well outside the EU. I think he was on the money then”.

Sticking the knife into Mr Cameron personally, another anti-EU Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg added: “The Prime Minister has got himself into a position where people laugh at his views on Europe, and that is a bit sad actually”.

Hitting back at the criticism, Mr Osborne claimed the Treasury report - the last the government will issue before the landmark June 23 referendum - was independently reviewed by former deputy governor of the Bank of England Professor Sir Charles Bean.

And while dubbing its predictions “towards the higher end of the scale”, the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies also gave the dossier a thumbs up, with its boss Paul Johnson saying: “On the whole, this looks pretty robust”.

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The Treasury said jobs in London and the South East will be hit hardest, losing a total of 147,000 under even the less damaging scenario.

Fuelling the Tory civil war, Mr Osborne also mounted a direct attack on leading Tory Brexiters by claiming they think an economic shock is “a price worth paying”.

The Chancellor told them: “It’s not your wages that will be hit, it’s not your livelihoods that will go, it’s not you who will struggle to pay the bills.

“It’s the working people of Britain who will pay the price if we leave the EU.”

The World Bank also warned that Brexit is one of the biggest threats facing the poorer countries in developing world.

The British economy’s stability “is really important for the global economy”, its head Dr Jim Yong Kim said.