09:34

Bank of England policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe Photograph: .

NEWSFLASH: Brexit is costing the economy £800m per week in lost growth, two-and-a-half years after the EU referendum, according to a Bank of England rate-setter.

Speaking in London, Gertjan Vlieghe, an external member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, also predicted that a damaging no-deal scenario could force an emergency cut in interest rates.

Vlieghe is explaining that that, since the EU referendum in June 2016, the British economy had lost about 2% of GDP relative to a scenario where that had been no significant domestic economic events.

The vote has cost the economy about £40bn per year, or about £800m per week of lost income, he said. That is more than double the £350m per week the Leave campaign printed on the side of its battle bus as the amount Britain sent to Brussels to pay for its EU membership.

Vlieghe says:

“UK growth in the past two years has been weaker than we would have expected based on the performance of the global economy alone. Based on what happened in the rest of the world we would have expected UK growth to accelerate, but actually it slowed.

Vlieghe, a former hedge fund manager, added that a no-deal Brexit could warrant an emergency cut in interest rates, should there be a further negative impact for the economy