Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested it could take 50 years to judge whether Brexit has been an economic success.
The dire warning comes as the leading Brexiteer launched a second fund in Ireland.
Somerset Capital Management (SCM), which ploughs millions of pounds into emerging markets, created the fund to meet demand from international investors.
The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has forced many asset managers to set up replica product ranges in European investment hubs such as Dublin and Luxembourg in order to continue to serve foreign clients.
Talking to Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News yesterday SCM’s motives for setting up a fund in an EU nation became clear.
In a grilling interview in which the Conservative politician was accused of not being prepared to put his own future on the line “when you’re prepared to put everybody else’s futures on the line” the Eurosceptic MP said it could be 50 years until we know whether Brexit was an economic success.
Rees-Mogg said: “We will know at some point, of course we will. But it’s a question of timescale.”
Guru-Murthy: “So how long have you got?”
Rees-Mogg: “We won’t know the full economic consequences for a very long time, we really won’t.”Guru-Murthy: “Of course not, but I mean we’ll have an indication. We’ll know if there’s been chaos, we’ll know if there have been job losses.”
Rees-Mogg: “The overwhelming opportunity for Brexit is over the next 50 years.”
