LONDON: The UK official shepherding Britain’s departure from the European Union acknowledged on Wed­nes­day that the government has made no formal assessments of the economic impact of leaving the 28-nation bloc.

Brexit Secretary David Davis told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the nation should be prepared for a profound shift in the way the economy operates on a scale similar to that of the 2008 financial crisis.

He says that since Britain must prepare for a “paradigm change,” in the economy, any assessment in the automotive, aerospace financial services or other sectors would fail to be “informative.”

The House of Com­mons’ Brexit committee’s chair, Hilary Benn, described the decision as “rather strange” given the momentous decisions at hand and since authorities wish to start renegotiating Britain’s trade relations with the rest of Europe within weeks.

“You have said there are no impact assessments,” Benn said. “You were hoping that, at the October (European) Council, the door would be open to phase two of the negotiations, where the question would be asked ‘What does the UK government want?’ “Are you actually telling us that the government hadn’t at that point and still hasn’t undertaken the assessment?” Benn asked.

Davis told the committee he didn’t need a formal impact assessment.

“I’m not a fan of economic models because they have all proven wrong,” Davis said. “When you have a paradigm change as happened in 2008 with the financial crisis all the models were wrong.”

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017