Brexit will damage the UK economy “for the foreseeable future”, the head of the Bank of England has admitted.

In comments which will be welcomed by campaigners to rejoin the European Union , Andrew Bailey said “making an economy less open restricts growth over the long term”.

His remarks, in a speech in Washington on Saturday, are his harshest assessment yet of the economic impact of the UK’s decision to quit the EU in the 2016 referendum.

“For nearly a decade, I have been very careful to say that I take no position per se on Brexit, which was a decision by the people of the UK, and it is our job as public officials to implement it,” Bailey said.

“But, I quite often get asked a second question: what’s the impact on economic growth? And as a public official, I have to answer that que

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