The BBC is pushing a negative Brexit study published by a group funded by the European Union and advised by top eurocrats.

In an article titled ‘Fears grow across the Atlantic over Brexit fallout’, BBC News economics editor Kamal Ahmed stresses the concerns of “influential U.S. think tank” the RAND Corporation, which claim a ‘No Deal’ outcome in the Brexit negotiations would be damaging to Britain, with the negative impact on the EU being “relatively minor” — with no effort to critique their findings or quote an alternative view.

Examination of RAND’s annual report for 2016 reveals another potentially key piece of information which the publicly-funded broadcaster neglects to mention: the European Union is a significant source of its income.

Don't be fooled; practical European leaders like Hungary's foreign minister know a 'No Deal' scenario hurts the EU more than the UK. #Brexit pic.twitter.com/AM5EcSkpJq — Jack Montgomery ن (@JackBMontgomery) October 15, 2017

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, and Research Executive Agency are all named on a list of “clients and grantors”.

So are the European Parliament and the European Defence Agency — a body which will become increasingly influential as the bloc’s leaders advance their plans for military integration.

Here you have it. A European army is born. https://t.co/c5alPZiKnp — Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (@lukeming) December 12, 2017

The RAND Corporation’s Council of Advisors in Europe also seems to be shot through with EU loyalists and former EU high officials.

To offer just a few examples, members include Carl Bildt, the former Prime Minister of Sweden who took the Scandinavian country into the EU in the first place, before going on to serve as EU Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia.

One of Bildt’s colleagues is László Andor, who served on the EU’s unelected executive as European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, and Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, another European Commissioner.

Another adviser is Paul Adamson, a Labour Party donor and former MEP’s assistant now described as the Don Corleone of Brussels lobbyists.

Made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for the curious service of “promoting understanding of the European Union”, Adamson is a highly partisan figure, having been a board member of Britain in Europe, which spent much of its time promoting British membership of the now-struggling euro currency and served as a spiritual predecessor to the official Remain campaign, Britain Stronger in Europe.

“Having spent 20 years here it exasperates me that the British are not more European or more aware of Europe,” he complained in 2012.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery