Leaving EU would be ‘risky bet’ for Britain and damage special relationship with US, ex-White House advisers warn

‘While Britain will remain an attractive centre for finance even if Britain exits, it should not take for granted its global primacy when it is no longer the gateway to Europe’

Britain will vote on whether to leave the EU in June (Getty)

Britain’s exit from the EU would be a “risky bet” and badly damage the UK’s special relationship with America, a group of former White House advisors have warned.

In an open letter in The Times, Larry Summers, who served under President Bill Clinton, George Schultz and six other ex-US treasury secretaries called the upcoming referendum a “consequential decision” and said the special relationship benefited from having the UK in the EU.

“A strong Britain, inside the European Union, remains the best hope in our view for securing Britain’s future, creating a more prosperous Europe and protecting a healthy and resilient global economy,” the group wrote, calling Brexit a “risky bet”.

They argued that while Britain “will remain an attractive centre for finance even if [Brexit happens], it should not take for granted its global primacy when it is no longer the gateway to Europe”.

The group warned that should the UK vote to leave the EU, it would “likely disrupt and reduce trade flows at least for a while, curtailing the scale and efficiency benefits from economic co-operation and integration”.

Mr Lammy expanded on the letter in an interview for Radio 4’s Today programme, in which he insisted Brexit would “do damage to London as a financial centre” while impacting on the UK’s standing in the G8 and G20 groups of industrialised nations.

He added that Brexit would be “the most isolationist deed in the last century”.

"It would reduce Britain's very positive influence as an ally of the US. I think the special relationship would translate much less into prosperity for both our countries, and I think the special relationship would have much less influence on the broad world.

"Much would be lost by the kind of split in the West that a British withdrawal from Europe would represent,"

But former defence secretary Liam Fox, who is backing the Leave campaign, told the programme the group had overstated the British influence in the EU, and claimed that “they have failed to take into account the decline and failure of the European economy itself”.

“If you look at Britain’s unemployment rate of 5.1per cent, the European Union averages 8.9%, and the eurozone is 10.3% - that is a failing European economy, where we are clearly not having the influence we ought to have, or they would be having falling unemployment the way that we have in Britain,” he argued.

US President Barack Obama is expected to offer his “very candid view as a friend” that Britain should remain in the EU during his visit this week.

Additional reporting by PA