Michael Gove compares economic experts to Nazis
UK Justice minister is one of the most prominent campaigners for Leave vote
- Economists have consistently warned that a Brexit would endanger the UK economy
- Gove refers to Albert Einstein and how he was denounced by German scientists
On the final day of the EU referendum campaign, UK Justice minister and prominent Leave campaigner Michael Gove has made a comparison between the various economic experts that have predicted a danger to the British economy, and Nazi German scientists.
The minister claimed that those warning of the economic fall-out are similar to those who orchestrated a smear campaign against Albert Einstein during Nazi-occupied Germany in the 1930s.
When asked on LBC Radio about his attitude towards the various opinions of economics that have predicted gloom, Gove was dismissive.
"I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good,” he asserted.
"We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish."
"They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said: 'Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough."
The outspoken campaigner referred to the current economic situation in Europe and said they are not necessarily any better off without the alliance.
"The truth is that if you look at the quality of the analysis, if you look at the facts on the ground, you can come to an appropriate conclusion," he added.
"And the appropriate conclusion, I think, all of us can come to is that with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy."
Gove has since apologised for the comments made on the radio show.
“Yesterday I was asked a question by Iain Dale [LBC presenter] about the predictions of doom for the economy. I answered, as I often do, with a historical analogy. It was clumsy and inappropriate."
