Speaking at Scottish Friendly’s Brexit debate in Parliament this morning Thomas, who is chair of the Co-op Party for Remain and MP for Harrow West, admitted he wasn’t sure whether Osborne had it right when he claimed that leaving the EU could add £1,500 to the average mortgage.
Remain MP Gareth Thomas has conceded he is unsure whether George Osborne’s warnings about rising mortgage costs in the event of a Brexit check out.
Speaking at Scottish Friendly’s Brexit debate in Parliament this morning Thomas, who is chair of the Co-op Party for Remain and Labour MP for Harrow West, admitted he wasn’t sure whether Osborne had it right when he claimed that leaving the EU could add £1,500 to the average mortgage.
Thomas said: “The honest answer is I don’t know [about Osborne’s warning].”
But he added: “There are always costs from uncertainty so I suspect there would be a cost.”
Pro-Brexit MP Kelvin Hopkins, who is a European Scrutiny Committee member and Labour MP for Luton North, felt mortgage interest rates will only increase when the economy recovers.
He said: “Interest rates are only going to rise when the economy starts to recover. We have deflation across the world at the moment.
“China is in trouble, Japan’s in serious trouble. The EU is in trouble. America is in trouble. There is a real possibility of another crisis.
“When the crisis last happened in 2008 we took advantage of our own currency – we depreciated it by 30%. That helped protect it from the ravages of other countries.”
