Brexit: UK Tax Chief Receives Death Threats over Cost Evaluation

Local Editor

Head of UK's HM Revenue and Customs Jon Thompson said he has had to change his route to work after he estimated that a no-deal Brexit customs option would cost up to £20bn.

Reportedly, he received two death threats after coming up with his Brexit cost estimations.

Earlier last week, he warned that a no-deal Brexit scenario would cost up to £20 billion [almost $27 billion at the current GBP/USD exchange rate] for UK and EU companies.

According to Thompson's estimations, customs declarations will quadruple to over 200 million per year in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

While many politicians have also received death threats over Brexit, this is the first time a civil servant has spoken out on such a matter.

Speaking at the Institute for Government on Thursday, Thompson said publishing the costs had led to "very significant personal consequences" for him.

"We have had to literally change how I travel and what my personal security is," he said.

"Those are real situations. I'm still not going to back away from [telling the truth] if I think something's not going to work — it's incumbent on me. We live in a democracy, so in the end, it's for governments to decide, ministers, to decide, what they want to implement," he added.

"But our role as civil servants is to act with integrity and to give them our best advice."

Naturally, Thompson's revelations have become a new card in the hands of those in the Remain group.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team