Brexit could lead to recession, vote to remain campaigners warn

BRITAIN could plunge into recession that would have a global knock-on effect if people vote to leave the EU, campaigners led by PM David Cameron have warned.

People wave Union flags as they attend a rally for 'Britain Stronger in Europe', the official 'Remain' campaign group seeking to avoid Brexit. Picture: AFP

BRITAIN could plunge into recession that would have a global knock-on effect if the referendum this week sees people vote to leave the European Union, campaigners led by the Prime Minister David Cameron have warned.

Campaigns for both the so-called Leave and Remain camps yesterday resumed, after being suspended in the wake of the murder of MP Jo Cox, with fresh warnings about what the result could mean.

And Leave campaign leaders have now used Australia as a prime example of how Britain outside the EU could stand strong and independent on its own.

Treasurer George Osborne said a Brexit could be worse than predicted by economists including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the fallout possibly being worse than the economic crisis of the 2008 recession.

He said Britain’s standing in the world would be diminished, world trade would suffer with Britain’s GDP would shrink.

“You can’t predict the enormous uncertainty that exiting the EU means for Britain,” he said.

Mr Cameron reinforced there would be “no turning back” from a leave vote likening it as parachuting out of an aeroplane “you can’t scramble back through the door”.

People pose kissing each other in a kiss chain organised by pro-Europe 'remain' campaigners seeking to avoid a Brexit in the EU referendum in Parliament Square. Picture: AFP

“If you’re not sure, don’t take the risk of leaving,” he said. “If you don’t know, don’t go. If we were to leave and it quickly turned out to be a big mistake, there wouldn’t be a way of changing our minds and having another go. This is it.”

He also declared he expected to still be the leader after the vote regardless of the outcome despite some of his Tory colleagues claiming he would have to step down.

Leading the Leave campaign both former London mayor and would be Tory leader Boris Johnson and Justice Minister Michael Gove said a Brexit vote was an affirmation of faith and hope in the country.

Mr Johnson said Brexit was not about fears of immigration and refugees but allowed the country to “take back its borders”.

“If we take back control of our immigration system with an Australian-style points based system, we’ll be dealing fairly and justly with every part of the world and we will be neutralising people in this country and across Europe who wish to play politics with immigration and who are opposed to immigrants,” Mr Johnson who lived in Melbourne in the 1980s and again in the 1990s when he was a lecturer at Monash University.

Mr Gove also said voters should look at Australia and be confident the country could handle “whatever the world throws at us”.

Boris Johnson taking part in a debate in London on Brexit. Picture: AFP/DAILY TELEGRAPH

“My view is that those challenges will be easier to meet, those risks will be less if we vote to leave because we will have control of the economic levers, we will have control over money we send to the European Union, we will have control over our own laws, and as a result we will be able to deal with whatever the world throws at us,” he said at a campaign in London

“What it would be would be an affirmation of faith and hope in Britain. Britain would be taking its place alongside countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and America as a self-governing democracy.”

In a televised public Q & A session last night, Mr Cameron scoffed at comparisons to Australia as a reason to Brexit and Leave claims it would lead to better controlled migration.

“Australia has more than twice as much net migration per head as we do, there is no silver bullet on this issue, absolutely no simple way of solving this issue,” he said when questioned on his government’s conceded failure to control mass migration to the UK from poorer EU nations, a key argument for campaigners who want to break away.