IFS warns Brexit would extend austerity for two more years

Thinktank says lower growth and extra borrowing would offset any benefits from halting what it claims is the 150m a week UK contribution to Brussels

Britain's leading tax and spending thinktank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has warned that leaving the European Union would force ministers to extend austerity measures by up to two years to achieve a budget surplus.

In a blow to the Vote Leave campaign, the fiercely independent IFS said the impact of lower GDP growth and extra borrowing costs would knock a 20bn to 40bn hole in the government's finances by 2020 and leave ministers struggling to balance the books before 2022, two years later than forecast.