Lord Stuart Rose, the chair of the remain campaign, has said he was misquoted as saying wages would go up if Britain left the EU and argued they will in fact go down.
Rose’s remarks, repeatedly quoted by Boris Johnson and others in the leave campaign, have been regarded as the most damaging gaffe by any remain campaigner in the EU referendum debate.
Since making the comment in a select committee on 3 March the former Marks & Spencer boss has virtually disappeared from the public eye as the remain campaign attempt to limit his potential for future blunders.
However, Rose appeared on a panel for the Sikh Channel on Monday, where he was asked about the leave campaign’s repetition of his comments about wages.
He told the Guardian: “I would say this, wouldn’t I, but I was misquoted. I was asked a straight economic question … which is if labour goes down in availability, what happens to the cost of labour and the answer is simple economics, the cost of labour goes up.
“But that is not anything to do with the actual argument about whether we should or shouldn’t be in the bigger community. What we really have to be sure about is a continually growing economy, which I believe we have more chance of doing in a 500 million-person community and the largest economic bloc in the world.
“That will guarantee more jobs for everybody. I did answer it but it was a straight answer to a straight economic question. I expected more from the select committee than cheap point-scoring.”
Pressed on whether he does really think wages will go up after Brexit, Rose said: “No. What I think will happen if we come out of the EU is that we will go into recession. How deeply and for how long I cannot tell you. But we will go into recession.
“Even the leave campaigners have said there will be a period of uncertainty and decline. That will mean jobs will be lost because 3 million jobs are directly associated with Europe. And if [3 million jobseekers] come on to the market, that will mean the price of labour will go down not up.”
Rose also predicted early in the campaign that the remain side would win by a significant margin, which leave campaigners said at the time “may come back to haunt him”.
Despite the polls narrowing and some showing leave as ahead, the businessman told the Sikh television event that he believed high turnout would work in remain’s favour.
Asked about hundreds of thousands more migrants arriving in the UK if more countries join the EU, he said the country has hugely benefited from immigration and the government’s job is to find ways of dealing with the pressure on services.
“There’s always a limit but men and women are quite ingenious,” he said.
Rose also urged voters to be as “selfish” as possible and vote to protect their finances as well as those of their children and grandchildren.
He said: “Nobody has ever left the EU. It’s a big social and economic experiment. At the end of the day, it’s like joining a golf club or a dining club, or any sort of club, a squash club. We may not like all the members, we may not like all the rules.
“We may not like the cost of teeing off or the cost of playing on a squash court. But we joined the club. And we’ve got more chance if we’re in the club of being elected to a committee or influencing the rules if we’re in the club.”
Rose has been chairman of the remain campaign since the start but has taken a behind-the-scenes role since some of his initial media appearances.
As well as suggesting the price of labour could go up on Brexit, he gave an interview in which he got the name of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign wrong several times, saying: “I’m chairman of Stay in Britain … Better in Britain campaign … right start again. I’m Stuart Rose and I’m the chairman of the Better in Britain campaign … the Better stay in Britain campaign.”
