Brexiteers will have 'nowhere to hide' if UK crashes out of EU without deal, Sir John Major warns

All for staying in: Sir John Major has been pilloried by Brexiteers for saying yesterday in a speech that MPs should have a vote on whether to hold a second EU referendum (Picture: PA)

Brexiteers trying to crash Britain out of Europe without a deal will have “nowhere to hide” for blighting young people’s lives, Sir John Major warns today.

Writing exclusively in tonight’s Standard, he said their names would live in infamy when the full costs of such a disastrous exit became clear.

The former Prime Minister offered a “word of caution” to hardline Eurosceptic MPs plotting to block Commons votes on “soft Brexit” models that could protect jobs and free travel.

“If, in pursuit of the ‘hard’ or ‘no deal’ Brexit they favour, they vote to delay approval of any other options by Parliament, or deny the nation a binding referendum, they will have nowhere to hide if — as so many forecast — Brexit harms our national wellbeing,” he said. “Those responsible for forcing through a policy that impairs the prospects and lifestyle of the British people will be held accountable for many years to come. They will not be forgotten — and may well not be forgiven — by those they misled.”

The former Conservative leader, who in 1992 won the biggest popular vote in any general election, is backing calls for a fresh referendum on the final Brexit deal.

He argued that the 2016 referendum was tainted by “misdirection on a classic scale” while a so-called People’s Vote to confirm or reject the final agreement would be guided by “proven facts rather than peddled fiction”.

He endorsed a report by campaigners that suggested a no-deal Brexit would cost young people between £76,000 and £108,000 in lost future earnings by 2050, or £2,400 per year, while even Theresa May’s Chequers-style deal would cost young people about £51,000, and a Norway option would cost around £20,000.

Sir John warned: “Under every scenario that has been independently modelled — even by our own British Government — the UK will be poorer and weaker, and the poorest regions and the least well-off will suffer the most. No one could — or should — be complacent about that.”

Last month he joined forces with Labour’s former foreign secretary David Miliband to call for a second vote on whether to leave the European Union. Mr Miliband said the “Brexit fantasy” proposed at the 2016 referendum was no longer on offer and any exit deal agreed with the EU should be put to the British people.