The suffering caused by austerity helped fuel Brexit – and will only get worse | Frances Ryan

Leaving the EU will make life worse for poor and disabled people - but the anger that led to the vote must be addressed

Unless austerity ends, the UK's poorest people face lives that are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". That was the finding on Wednesday from Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, who warned worse could be yet to come "for the most vulnerable, who face a major adverse impact" if Brexit proceeds.

Days earlier, down the line at BBC 5 Live, the Brexit party candidate Lucy Harris declared that the average leave voter wants Brexit "at any cost". Pressed further by presenter Nicky Campbell, Harris admitted this could mean volunteering for "30 years" of economic downturn.

Related: Britain is trapped in the purposeless austerity that gave us Brexit | Aditya Chakrabortty