Michael Gove defends his pre-Brexit blast on ‘experts’ as he likens EU exit to English Civil War
Ex-Justice Secretary renews attack on Brexit doom and gloom 'prophets', calling for experts to 'shows us the evidence and facts'
TORY Michael Gove yesterday claimed experts are too often treated as “prophets” - as he defended his Brexit blast.
The former Justice Secretary was slammed during the Referendum campaign for daring to question doom and gloom experts.
But yesterday he renewed his attack – saying he was criticising organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.
And he said: “Sometimes we’re invited to take experts as though they were prophets, as though their words were carved in tablets of stone and that we had to simply meekly bow down before them and accept their verdict.
“I think the right response in a democracy to assertions made by experts is to say ‘show us the evidence, show us the facts’.
“And then, if experts or indeed anyone in the debate can make a strong case, draw on evidence and let us think again, then of course they deserve respect.”
He pointed to an academic study that claims experts in a range of fields were prone to “group think”.
The Tory – consigned to the backbenches by Theresa May – hit the headlines in June by saying Britain had “had enough of experts”.
It came when the Brexit campaigner was challenged to name any economist who supported Britain’s possible exit from the EU.
Speaking yesterday he stuck by his second controversial claim, that a Brexit would mean an extra £350 million a week for the NHS.
He said it was a credible figure based on the potential savings from leaving the EU – and the contributions that would no longer go to Brussels.
He said: “The money is there and it’s for the Government to decide how to spend it once we leave.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Mr Gove also likened the Brexit vote to the English civil war – but a war “fought without muskets”.
He added: “In that sense the Parliamentarian side – our side – won.”
Stephanie Flanders, the former BBC economics editor who now works for JP Morgan, admitted economic experts had a “long record” of being wrong in their forecasts.
She added: “You get group think, you can certainly get elites being out of touch. And we’ve seen all of that and that’s why I think, in a sense, Michael Gove had captured something with that phrase.”
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