'Project Hysteria': How the papers covered Mark Carney's Brexit forecast

The warning from the Bank of England governor Mark Carney about the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit is all over Thursday’s front pages, with papers showing their Brexit colours in their reporting of the news.

The pro-Brexit papers have responded by condemning the governor’s intervention in the subject, led by the Daily Telegraph, with: “Carney unleashes ‘Project Hysteria’”.

The Telegraph has labelled Carney’s announcement “doomsday analysis”, and its story says: “Mark Carney has been accused of undermining the Bank of England’s ‘independence and credibility’ after publishing an analysis of the economic impacts of no deal so bleak it has been dubbed ‘project hysteria’.”

The source of this “Project Hysteria” line is staunch Eurosceptic MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The Daily Express also has Rees-Mogg’s quote in its splash: “Bank boss Carney’s ‘Project Hysteria’” and showed its leanings by leading not with the straight news of Carney’s comments but with the fact he “faced a furious backlash”.

“MPs tore into the governor’s latest bleak prognosis, accusing him of meddling in politics by attempting to stoke up Project Fear once again,” said the paper

The Sun runs the punny headline “Carnage”, under a picture of Carney’s face, leading with the impact of a “brutal no deal Brexit” on house prices, which Carney warned could crash by 30%.

The Daily Mail ignores Carney’s comments, focusing instead on news that reflects more favourably on the PM. Continuing its newfound support for May and her Brexit plans, the Mail’s main story is that “senior Cabinet Europsceptic” Andrea Leadsom will give her support to May over the Brexit agreement: “Key cabinet Brexiteer: I’m backing May’s deal”.

The Guardian plays it straight: “Warnings over economy deal blow to May’s Brexit strategy”, citing the Bank of England’s warning and the “official Whitehall analysis [which] concluded that in all Brexit scenarios, including May’s final deal, the UK would be worse off”.

The Times follows a similar vein, and reports Carney’s comments: “No-deal Brexit ‘would be worst crash since 1930s’”.

The FT says “May forced to concede all Brexit roads will lead to a poorer Britain”. The i also lays things out pretty straight “Bank warns of worst economic slump since second world war”, adding “Labour now warming to a second referendum”.

The (obviously anti-Brexit) weekly magazine, The New European, which has had some cracking front pages in the last few months, has another blinder today, and the headline is: “‘Nobody voted to be poorer’”.

The anti-Brexit paper Daily Mirror somewhat buries the lede, splashing with “May’s deal will cost us £100 billion”, before adding (in much smaller type) that “it still beats the £200bn price of ‘no deal’”.