Stinging: Lord King today called the referendum dispiriting and said Remain leaders had treated the public as 'idiots' if they wanted to Leave

Former Bank of England governor Lord King today blamed the Government for Britain's decision to quit the EU because they treated Leave supporters like 'idiots'.

He also called George Osborne's threat to call an emergency budget if Brexit happened the 'nadir' of a campaign he branded 'the most dispiriting in my lifetime'.

Lord King also suggested that George Osborne's position as Chancellor is under threat because David Cameron has 'already taken responsibility for the result'.

The 68-year-old said that the public had been put off by their campaign's 'scaremongering'.

Speaking to the BBC today he said: 'This was the most dispiriting campaign I can recall in my lifetime. Both sides were exaggerating. I think the Government has to take responsibility for setting the tone for that.

'We had all sorts of scare stories and I was travelling around the UK a lot at the time and I was struck by how many people said to me that they didn't like the scaremongering tactics.

'They (voters) didn't like to be told that if they were to vote Leave they would be idiots. And if you say to someone: "Well you're an idiot if you don't agree with me", then you are not likely to bring them in your direction'.

Lord King said that the Remain campaign were right to say that Brexit would cause economic uncertainty, but claimed they then went too far.

He said: 'I do think they said things that were not easy to sustain or support. It's true there was a great deal of economic uncertainty about the outcome and that would have been enough to make their case.

'But they went way beyond that about the precise numbers that could be used to say how much our living standards might fall'.

Pressure: Lord King suggested that George Osborne could be forced to leave the Treasury after David Cameron fell on his sword

And piling pressure on George Osborne, who refused to quit today, he said: 'Well the prime minister has taken responsibility for the result and has stood down and I think the Treasury is in a difficult position now because it did make very clear forecasts that were exaggerated.

'We have already seen this morning there will not be an emergency budget and I think that was the nadir. I was baffled by the idea that the emergency budget'.

He added: 'That's the last thing you need'.

But Lord King, who ran the Bank of England for more than a decade, said voting leave does not have to cause major job cuts.

He said: 'The City is much more than a small number of banks. Some will have to expand or make new subsidiaries to carry out the clearing of euro transactions, but that doesn't have to mean the loss of a huge number of jobs'.

An emergency budget to deal with the fallout from the referendum vote to leave the EU looks unlikely to take place until the autumn, as Chancellor George Osborne said it was better to delay action to shore up the public finances until a new prime minister is in place.

In an early-morning statement at the Treasury designed to calm market anxieties after the pound fell a further 2% against the US dollar in overnight trading, Mr Osborne insisted that the UK economy is 'about as strong as it could be to confront the challenge our country now faces' and said Britain remains 'open for business'.

Hope: Lord King did say that the City did not have to cut lots of jobs because of Brexit, but admitted it would cause uncertainty

Following talks over the weekend with Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and fellow finance ministers and international economic organisations, Mr Osborne said that 'further well-thought through contingency plans' were ready to be deployed if needed in response to further volatility.

Mr Osborne - who has kept a low public profile since the Brexit vote - said it was 'inevitable' that the UK economy would face an 'adjustment' in the wake of the Brexit vote, though he steered clear of repeating explicit warnings of recession made during the referendum campaign.

The leading Leave campaigner welcomed the early morning statement by Mr Osborne intended to calm the markets that the UK economy was 'about as strong as it could be' to confront the challenge of separating from the EU.

'It is clear now that Project Fear is over, there is not going to be an emergency budget, people's pensions are safe, the pound is stable, the markets are stable, I think that's all very good,' he told reporters as he left his London home.



