A hard Brexit could cost an average worker in Scotland £116 by 2020, new research has indicated.
The study claims income losses following a no deal Brexit could hit more than £1,010 by 2027 and forecasts a cumulative drop of more than £15,615 by 2034.
Campaign organisation Open Britain carried out the research for Labour MP Ian Murray, co-founder of the Scottish Labour for the Single Market group with former
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, which wants to stay in the customs union and single market after leaving the EU. The calculations are based on a no deal Brexit leading to an estimated drop in the UK’s average annual economic growth by 1%. The income loss is based on a median Scottish wage of £23,150.
Mr Murray said: “This reveals that any sort of Brexit will leave families across Scotland worse off and a no deal Brexit could cost the average worker £116-a-year in 2020.
Brexit has the potential to hit everyone in work. Already we have seen how Brexit has forced prices up in the shops and the pound has taken a beating. The pain of Brexit could stretch on for years.”
Papers leaked last month from the UK Government’s Department for Exiting the EU forecast a 9% drop in economic growth in Scotland following a no deal Brexit, worse than Scottish Government predictions of an 8.5% drop by 2030.
The UK Government said the leaked papers were draft documents which do not represent the government’s policy.
Speaking on TV, Mr Murray said: “It’s very difficult, as the EU keeps saying, to have your cake and eat it, and that’s what the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition seem to want to do.”
Questioned if the formation of the new group is a bid to upstage Ms Dugdale’s successor Richard Leonard at the Scottish Labour conference this weekend, Mr Murray said: “It’s got absolutely nothing to do with the leadership of the UK or the Scottish Labour parties.”
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