Theresa May dancing in the dark on Brexit

Theresa May meets staff and pupils during a visit to the ID Mkhize High School in Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph: PA. - Credit: AP

The prime minister has rubbished her own chancellor’s no-deal Brexit economic forecast as a ‘work in progress’.

Prime minister Theresa May dancing with students and staff at ID Mkize Secondary School in Cape Town
Photo: PA / Stefan Rousseau – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

During a visit to South Africa, Theresa May repeated claims that no agreement with the EU ‘would not be a walk in the park’ but rather hopefully added it ‘wouldn’t be the end of the world’.

She added the government is putting in place measures to ensure it can ‘make a success of no deal’ and remains confident it can do similar with a ‘good deal’ – which she maintained it was possible to agree.

May added that Philip Hammond was highlighting ‘work in progress’ figures released in January when he published a letter just hours after the government started revealing its no-deal Brexit preparations.

The chancellor was accused by Brexiteers Tory backbenchers of launching another ‘project fear’ by claiming GDP could fall and borrowing could be around £80 billion a year higher by 2033/34 if Britain resorted to WTO terms.

Hammond said such an impact on GDP would have ‘large fiscal consequences’.

He also said this analysis was undergoing a ‘process of refinement’ ahead of a parliamentary vote on any deal.

May, asked about the timing and content of Hammond’s intervention, said she had previously labelled the data as a work in progress.

The PM, who is in South Africa on a trade visit, later performed a toe-curling dance with children on a visit to a secondary school.