Treasury minister Simon Clarke has tried to rebut claims, from former chancellor Philip Hammond, that Boris Johnson’s hedge fund backers would win “billions of pounds” from a no-deal Brexit. Answering an urgent question on Hammond’s allegations, Clarke claimed that such theories were “more fit for the tin-foil-hat brigade”. Claims that investors who backed Johnson, or the Leave Campaign, would win billions from the collapse of sterling were simply wrong, Clarke insisted. And he told several MPs that the best way to avoid a no-deal Brexit was to support efforts to leave with a good deal. Labour’s Tracey Brabin said it was simply immoral for speculators to profit from the pain and disruption that a no-deal Brexit would cause.

Source: The Guardian September 30, 2019 07:06 UTC