Leading Brexiteer Daniel Hannan has admitted the predictions that Brexit will have a major negative impact the UK economy are true, but contends Britons still voted to be poorer.

Despite dismissing concerns that leaving the European Union would make Britons poorer during the referendum campaign and afterwards as “Project Fear”, Hannan now contends that the public were well informed of the risks and voted to leave “on balance”.

On Twitter, Hannan said: “‘Voters weren’t told about the costs of Brexit’. Oh yes they were. Day after day by Remain campaigners and by the Government itself. They weighed those costs against the gains and decided, on balance, to vote leave.”

However, on 22 June 2016, the day before the referendum, Hannan wrote in the Telegraph that voters should “Forget Project Fear. Be positive. Choose dynamism. Choose Brexit”. He dismissed the well-warranted concerns of the British electorate, and claimed the Brexit process would be “gradual” and “gentle process”.

In the same piece, Hannan went on to say that “If the vote is close, [Brexiteers will] need to acknowledge that nearly half the country has voted to stay. They won’t have a mandate for precipitate or unilateral action; they’ll have to move by consent and leave some of our ties to the EU in place.”

However, Hannan now wraps himself in nationalism and nostalgia, and has called Labour’s support of remaining within the customs union a “betrayal”. Despite the UK economy performing worst of the G7 countries, and languishing at the bottom of the table of EU growth rates, Hannan continues to peddle the false idea the British economy is “thriving”.