He urges our man not to believe 'rich' Brexiteers urging ordinary Brits to walk away from Brussels
GEORGE Osborne has told The Sun’s Cabbie that his Project Fear doomsday scenario of Britain under Brexit is actually “Project Reality”.
Grilled on his warnings of how the economy will tank, the Chancellor insisted he is just spelling out the truth.
Mr Osborne said in the back of the Sun Cab: “The whole Project Fear is Project Reality. People have got a real reason to be fearful of the consequences”.
Pointing to stock market wobbles last week, Mr Osborne claimed: “These are not just warnings from politicians.
“This is real people with real money making real decisions.”
A vote for Brexit is also a “one way door”, Mr Osborne insisted, adding: “We can’t in a few years time say we made a terrible mistake, the economy is screwed and now we want back in the EU”.
The Chancellor also urged real-life London taxi driver Grant Davis - who is still undecided how to vote - not to believe “rich” Brexiteers in the back of his cab urging ordinary Brits to walk away from Brussels as “they don’t mind recessions”.
Instead he explained: “It is the people, it’s the Sun readers on low and middle incomes, who will be hit hardest”.
With just four days to go and the polls showing Remain and Leave campaigns neck and neck, Mr Osborne also admitted the race is now “very close”.
But the Treasury supremo ducked a demand to spell out when a six year-old Tory promise to slash immigration down to just tens of thousands a year will be met.
Despite being David Cameron’s chief negotiator for Britain’s EU renegotiation, Mr Osborne insisted he would stay on as Chancellor even if we did vote to leave “for some years to come”.
And his first job in the Treasury if the result is to leave would be “dealing with a very difficult situation with the markets”.
THE CAB INTERVIEW:
Grant: Leave is edging in front and looks like they are getting stronger? What has gone wrong George?
Osborne: Well look I think it is very close.
It is really important if you don’t want to take a risk with the economy, you don’t want to take a risk with your livelihood that people turn up and vote next Thursday.
Otherwise we risk sleep-walking into Brexit and waking up the next day finding the country is poorer and we have absolutely no plan for the country’s future.
G: But a lot of the people I speak to in the cab, they are saying it is all scaremongering.
It has been Project Fear from the beginning. It is almost like the boy that cried wolf.
People have just switched off to it George now haven’t they?
O: You only have to look at what is happening in the real world you know. People are moving their money, and the value of the pound is going down, so your holiday is going to cost more, the price of things is going to go up. People aren’t buying homes.
G: But that could change a week later though George. You know that.
O: Yes, but these are not just warnings from politicians, this is real people with real money making real decisions. Look Grant, you know cab drivers are the first to feel it when there is a downturn. You know, that light stays on.
So why do you want to add to the challenges you have got and the last thing you need or indeed any Sun reader needs is a recession? By the way Brexit, the richest people you have in the back of the cab, they are fine with Brexit, they don’t mind recessions, they don’t mind incomes falling.
It is the people, it’s the Sun readers on low and middle incomes who will be hit hardest.
G: Six years ago, you said you are going to get immigration down to the tens of thousands. You are not doing it George. You haven’t done it for six years.
O: We have had this massive challenge which is our economy has been growing while the European economy has not.
But it is growing now, and I don’t think the answer to this problem is to stop growing our country.
G: But the Leave campaign said yesterday we can put £100m a week in the NHS if we leave.
O: But that is total nonsense. Listen to the people who work in the NHS.
G: But that is Operation Fear again isn’t it.
O: No it’s nothing to do with fear. The whole Project Fear is Project Reality. People have got a real reason to be fearful of the consequences.
G: The reality is George, people are still going to want to trade with the UK, we are still going to be selling stuff.
I reckon after a week it will all sort itself out George.
O: That is sadly not the case. Even the people who want to quit today are saying it is going to take four years, and they are the ones trying to persuade you.
This comes down to a big point Grant, who are we as a country? We are not quitters. This has never been a country that walks away from the big table, tries to draw up the drawbridge.
G: We’ve never been a country that has been bought by other people either,George. It is the democratic situation where the EU can tell us what to do.
O: Yes but we are going to be affected by these decisions in Europe whether we like it or not. We can’t tow the country off into the middle of the Atlantic. I would rather the people you elect are at the top table fighting Britain’s corner rather than having these things done to us.
I don’t want the French and the Germans and the like imposing decisions on us. I want to be at the table arguing with them.
G: But you and Dave, you have done the deal, but Europe is changing. Don’t you think if you had waited a bit and just held on to your hand a bit longer, perhaps you could have got more out of the EU?
O: But I think we got a good deal because we have dealt with the things that people were most fed up about.
We have protected the pound, we have made sure we are not on those open borders system they have got, we have made sure that people can’t come here and claim welfare, and we have got out of that ever closer union.
It is going to come down on Thursday you are voting about whether we walk through that door and we never come back, right. And we can’t in a few years time say we made a terrible mistake, the economy is screwed and now we want back in the EU.
G: It’s a real divorce.
O: This is a proper one way door, and I don’t want to find you Grant on Friday looking round this city and for many years to come saying, ‘where is my livelihood coming from? Where are the rides coming from? What has
G: Talking about next Friday, what happens if we vote to leave? What are you going to do? You was the chief negotiator. Are you going to be packing your bags?
O: My job as the country’s Chancellor is going to be dealing with a very difficult situation on Friday with the markets and all of that.
G: So do you think you are going to be staying firm and going to ride it out George?
O: Absolutely. I will be riding in the back of your cab as Chancellor for some years to come.
GRANT'S VERDICT ON GEORGE:
“He's talking up the negative things that could happen if we leave, and as a small businessman of course that worries me.
"But he didn't give me an answer to allay any of my fears on immigration and that's disappointing.”
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