[hoju]

Why would leaving the EU obviously make the UK "permanently poorer"? Norway and Switzerland are doing fine outside the EU. The majority of UK's exports are with non-EU countries, but the EU has few external FTA's (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_free_trade_agre...). This is because any deal can be vetoed by a member state= - an example is a recent proposed deal with Australia was derailed because Italy wanted to protect their tomato industry. Consequently the EU still has no FTA's with US (TTIP likely not passed until 2020), China, India, Japan, Brazil, etc. And these non-EU countries are where the actual growth is happening in the world.

Leaving the EU will allow UK the flexibility to develop trade agreements with the world and increase their exports outside the EU. "Permanently poorer"? - this is propaganda.