Osborne’s bleak Brexit forecast ‘has undermined the Treasury’

Lord Kerslake says department is in a poor position to influence Brexit decisions

George Osborne's "project fear" forecasts about the economic risks of leaving the European Union have undermined public confidence in the Treasury and left it ill-equipped to influence Brexit, according to a damning new report from former Whitehall chief Lord Kerslake.

The Treasury is traditionally Whitehall's most powerful department and its civil servants some of the brightest and best. But Kerslake finds that its reputation waned in the wake of the financial crisis - and when it published bleak forecasts of the impact of Brexit in the run-up to the referendum, "the public reaction ... was unprecedentedly hostile".