Brexiteer economist Ruth Lea forced to backtrack live on BBC News after claiming she ‘made figures up’ at the Treasury ‘I was in the Treasury. I made figures up when I was in the Treasury…’

Pro-Brexit economist Ruth Lea has been forced to backtrack during a live TV debate on claims she “made up” figures while working at the Treasury, after she dismissed forecasts from the department showing the negative impact expected to the economy in a no-deal situation.

The former civil servant and economic adviser of the Arbuthnot Banking Group was debating with Torcuil Crichton, Westminister editor at Scottish newspaper the Daily Record on BBC News on Tuesday when she made the extraordinary claim.

The journalist was detailing the predicted impact of a no-deal Brexit both on the EU and the UK when Ms Lea cut in to tell him: “You’re making the figures up now.”

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‘I didn’t make them up’

“No these are Government figures,” Mr Chrichton responded, before Ms Lea claimed he was “making up” the figures relating to the UK.

Pushing back once again, the journalist told Ms Lea the figures he was citing were “from the UK Treasury itself”.

“I don’t believe those. They just made them up,” the economist remarked, before claiming: “I was in the Treasury. I made figures up when I was in the Treasury.”

Presenter Ben Brown interjected to ask: “Really? Did you really?”

Quickly changing tack Ms Lea responded: “No, I forecast things, I estimated things.”

The presenter asked: “But you didn’t make them up did you?”

“Oh no, I didn’t make them up,” she replied.

No-deal Brexit

Ms Lea was a civil servant in the Treasury and a number of other departments until 1988 when she left for the private sector.

The economist is one of a small group in her field who advocate for a no-deal Brexit, while most argue that such an outcome would be bad for the UK economy.

Writing a blog for London School of Economics in November last year, she said: “No Deal, trading under WTO rules, unequivocally delivers Brexit. We would be outside the Customs Union and the Single Market and our institutions and laws would be supreme. It is liberating.”

“We would, moreover, be free to use the new economic freedoms to give the economy a real boost. Outside the Customs Union, we can negotiate our own trade deals with fast-growing and friendly countries.”



“Indeed, we would be an excellent position to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with the EU – in a much better position than envisaged by the Political Declaration.”

“We can also cut tariffs, for example on foodstuffs, to benefit consumers. Outside the Single Market, there is scope for regulatory modernisation and reform, to give businesses a lift, and our immigration policy can be adapted for the social and economic needs of the country.

“These are the economic prizes of Brexit, primarily why I voted to leave the EU.”

Fears over a no-deal Brexit have grown in the two weeks since Boris Johnson took office as his demands that the EU revises the Withdrawal Agreement are met with a refusal by Brussels.

He has also repeatedly stated that the UK must leave the EU on the 31 October, leaving little room for manoeuvre if talks do begin to proceed down the line.