Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith says UK government forecast should be taken “with a pinch of salt”

Leave campaigner Iain Duncan Smith has hit out at a leaked analysis of how Brexit will impact the economy, saying it should be taken with a “pinch of salt”.

A government report on the impact of Brexit has claimed the UK will be worse off under various different scenarios after March 2019.

Read more: Overheard at Davos: Cameron says Brexit is a “mistake, not a disaster”

The analysis looks at how the economy will be affected under a “no deal” Brexit, a Norway-style deal and a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today Programme, Duncan Smith said the timing of the analysis was “highly suspicious”.

“I would observe that almost every single forecast coming from government, and most of the international organisations, have been completely wrong. You know, the IMF have been wrong,” he said.

“It was forecast for example that if we voted to leave we’d have half a million job losses, the economy itself would be close to a crash, and that we would all suffer, and in fact, none of that’s come true.

“In fact, if you look at the OBR forecast even in the budget recently they forecast growth at a lower level than we’re now achieving and that’s only months ago so I think the answer is we should take this with a pinch of salt.”

The intervention by Duncan Smith comes after David Cameron was caught on camera saying that Brexit was a “mistake, not a disaster”.

In the video, the former Prime Minister admitted that economic forecasts had been overdone, saying: “It’s turned out less badly than we first thought. But it’s… it’s still going to be difficult.​”