Leading Brexiteer doubles down on claims civil service is 'fiddling the figures'

Rees-Mogg suggested officials working in the UK Treasury were seeking to keep the country in the EU customs union, and asked Brexit Minister Steve Baker on Thursday to confirm the allegation based on an off-the-record conversation with think tanker Charles Grant, who heads the Centre for European Reform. Baker on Friday apologized to MPs for saying Rees-Mogg’s account of the remarks was “essentially correct.” Speaking to BBC on Saturday, Rees-Mogg stood by his original claim, saying: “With the referendum and with the EU the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same now … So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.”

Grant said he was “surprised” that Rees-Mogg had declined to apologize, saying it was normal for civil servants to speak to those working in think-tanks. “That’s how think tanks work,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”