The post-Brexit trade plan being advocated by Jacob Rees-Mogg could endanger up to 1.4 million jobs, research published today reveals.

The Resolution Foundation have published an impact assessment of different trade options being advocated by hard Brexiteers.

Their conclusion: ‘no deal’ is a lose/lose situation.

If Britain trades with the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, which Brexiteers claim would be fine, prices for everyday goods would rocket:

What would a 'No Deal' Brexit scenario mean for trade tariffs and prices? Increases across the board if we revert to WTO rules pic.twitter.com/Yzrl1DOzI7 — ResolutionFoundation (@resfoundation) October 17, 2017

And that’s where Jacob Rees-Mogg comes in. He backs a plan to unilaterally abolish all tariffs in a bid to keep the cost of living low.

Rees-Mogg is an adviser to the Economists for Free Trade group, which published a widely discredited report claiming this option would boost Britain’s economy.

In an interview published in March, Rees-Mogg argued:

“Ultimately, the option must be to get cheaper food along with cheaper clothing from the rest of the world, and a sensible UK government would look to go to zero tariffs on everything, to go to genuine free trade, because that’s in the interest of both UK consumers and UK businesses.”

But the Resolution Foundation found the “benefits to consumers would be low” from this option.

Unilaterally reducing tariffs to zero in a No Deal Brexit would reduce prices on a smaller scale. Far wider consequences for competitiveness pic.twitter.com/LtDlPteSgH — ResolutionFoundation (@resfoundation) October 17, 2017

The report concludes: “Across those goods affected by the tariff cuts prices would fall by just 1 per cent.”

And crucially, it warns any gains in cost of living would be offset by potentially huge numbers of job losses:

“It is important that the government is aware of where job losses may occur. The evidence suggests that 1.4 million people are employed across all the sectors that could be affected by trade liberalisation and that the majority of these are in rural areas and in the Midlands and the North.”

As Liam Fox, the man actually in charge of negotiating Britain’s post-Brexit trade, told us this summer: “It is not our responsibility to protect jobs.”