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Top 21 Leave campaign lies

Writer: John Precedo
John Precedo
Aug 19, 2018
20 min read

I've seen some pro-Brexit twitter accounts asking for details of lies by the Leave campaign in the 2016 Referendum (and proof they actually took place). Here's my list. Feel free to link, quote, share or use however you wish.


I've tried to keep it pretty brief – just the lie, the truth and some links you can check out for more info.



1 - Brexit will be easy


Lie(s):

"Getting out of the EU can be quick and easy – the UK holds most of the cards in any negotiation" (John Redwood, Tweet, and on his website)

"Everybody is suddenly wrangling about the terrors of the world outside.... there are plenty of people who now think that the cost of getting out would be virtually nil and the cost of staying in would be very high.” (Boris Johnson, in the Daily Telegraph)

"Within minutes of a vote for #Brexit CEO’s would be knocking down Chancellor Merkel’s door. Demanding access to the British market" (David Davis, Tweet)


Truth:

"This is going to be as we are seeing already, a very very difficult divorce negotiation. We just have to cross our fingers that Britain gets what it wants.... I think it’s going to be tough.” (Martin Lewis)


“Faced with this maze of interlocking law, standards and practice which over four decades has seeped into the very fabric and minutiae of our everyday life, perhaps it’s no surprise that David Davis admitted... that Brexit makes 'the Nasa moon shot look quite simple'.” (Nick Clegg)


Links:



2 - We pay £350 million a week to the EU.


Lie(s):

“We send the EU £350 million a week” (Vote Leave campaign bus)

“Let's give our NHS the £350 million the EU takes every week” (Vote Leave tweet)

“Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week.” (Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph)

“Every week we send £350m to Brussels. I'd rather that we control how to spend that money, and if I had that control I would spend it on the NHS." (Gisela Stuart, to the Today program (15/04/2016), quoted by NowWeKnow)


Truth:

The UK pays £250 million a week to the EU. The £350 million figure doesn’t take into account the money the UK gets back from the EU or Britain’s rebate. If the EU’s payments to the UK public sector are included, this falls to about £156 million a week. The UK Statistics Authority called the £350m-a-week claim blatantly misleading and the Institute for Fiscal Studies said it was absurd.


Links:



3 - Turkey is joining the EU


Lie(s):

“Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU” (Vote Leave poster campaign)

“it is hard to see how it could possibly be in our security interests to open visa-free travel to 77 million Turkish citizens” (Michael Gove, quoted by the BBC)

“During the 45-minute BBC1 Question Time special, the Justice Secretary [Michael Gove] insisted the Leave campaign was 'absolutely not' scaremongering with warnings that Turkey and its 77 million population is set to join the EU.” (The Sun, quoting Michael Gove)

“What I certainly can't imagine is a situation in which 77 million Turks and those of Turkish origin can come here without any checks at all. That is really mad."

(Boris Johnson, quoted in the Daily Express)


Truth:

“Turkey is a candidate to join the EU. But it’s unlikely to join any time soon. There are tensions to be resolved over Cyprus before aspects of the negotiation can even be opened, and the EU has concerns over Turkey’s human rights record.”


Links:



4 - We can't stop a European Army


Lie(s):

“Remain would mean we stay part of a political union... which has clear ambitions for further, deeper integration – including plans for a full EU army.” (Nigel Farage in the Independent)

“Pro-EU establishment not telling the truth - European Union pushing for a full EU army.” Nigel Farage (tweet)

“'No one is talking about an EU army,' say the Remain camp. Er, no one except the people running the EU. President Jean-Claude Juncker has made very clear that he wants an EU army. And the European Commission describes it as a 'strategic necessity'.” (the Sun)

“EU army plans kept secret from voters” (headline, The Times)


Truth:

“EU member countries work together on military matters, but the EU doesn't have its own military capabilities. At least a few European politicians do support the creation of an EU army, but that would need unanimous approval.”


Links:



5 - 60 per cent of UK law derives from the EU


Lie(s):

“If Britain votes to Remain in the EU, then we continue to be subject to an increasingly anti-democratic system that is now responsible for 60 per cent of the law that goes through Westminster” (Boris Johnson, writing in the Daily Telegraph)

“the House of Commons Library has repeatedly confirmed that when you add primary and secondary legislation together the EU is now generating 60 per cent of the laws passing through parliament.” (Boris Johnson, speech on the EU referendum)

“Remain would mean we stay part of a political union that makes the majority of our laws” (Nigel Farage, writing in the Independent )


Truth:

“The House of Commons Library has warned that "there is no totally accurate, rational or useful way of calculating the percentage of national laws based on or influenced by the EU.”

“In 2010, the House of Commons library published a comprehensive analysis of the variety of ways this percentage can be calculated. There are difficulties with all measurements, but it concluded 'it is possible to justify any measure between 15% and 50% or thereabouts'.”


Links:



6 - Rights of UK citizens living in other EU countries will be automatically protected by the Vienna Convention


Lie(s):

“You have got the Vienna convention, which guarantees the rights of existing citizens and existing arrangements.” (Gisela Stuart, reported in the Guardian)

“Expats rights will be grandfathered due to the Vienna Convention.” (a Leave.EU spokesman, quoted in the Daily Express)

“The (1969) Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties is clear, in article 70.1.b it states that a termination of a treaty: 'Does not affect any right, obligation or legal situation of the parties created through the execution of the treaty prior to its termination.' To summarise, “acquired rights” – also known as “executed rights” or “vested rights” – do continue to apply to individuals. ” (LeaveHQ)

“the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969 would come into play. It contains articles that are based on ‘acquired rights’, which individuals build up over time and hold despite any changes in future treaties enacted by their nation.” (the Daily Telegraph)


Truth:

“Article 70(1)(b) of the Vienna Convention provides that termination of an international treaty “does not affect any right, obligation or legal situation of the parties created through the execution of the treaty prior to its termination”. Professor Douglas-Scott explained that the “crucial point” to understand was that “parties” in this context referred to States, not to individuals or companies.”


Links:



7 - A vote to leave the EU will reduce immigration


Lie(s):

“Leaving the EU would give back control of immigration policy to the UK government so enabling the number of immigrants to be reduced while, at the same time, being more selective about who can come to the UK.” (Liam Fox, text of speech available on Vote Leave website)

“Uncontrolled immigration: Forget about controlling who comes here or in what numbers. We’ll have missed our one chance to make decisions on the level of immigration from the EU and on what skills workers must have before they come here.” (Article in the Sun, credited to Lord Green, Daniel Hannan and Patrick Minford)

“if we vote to Remain there will be no hope of reducing immigration from the EU. The right to live and work here will be set in stone, with nothing our politicians can do.” (Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, quoted in the Sun)

“we must also face the fact that the system has spun out of control. We cannot control the numbers. We cannot control the terms on which people come and how we remove those who abuse our hospitality.” (Boris Johnson, statement on immigration statistics)


Truth:

“Ending the free movement of people from EU countries after Brexit may not result in lower overall migration, a committee of peers has warned.... the House of Lords EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee says net migration to the UK from outside the EU remains significantly higher than within it, despite non-EU migration already being covered by restrictions.”


Links:



8 - Britain is powerless to cut VAT


Lie(s):

“We cannot lower VAT rates as long as we are in the European Union.” (Michael Gove)

“Whoever is in power in London cannot remove or reduce VAT.” Michael Gove, statement on backing the Leave campaign)

“In 1993, VAT on household energy bills was imposed. This makes gas and electricity much more expensive. EU rules mean we cannot take VAT off those bills.... As long as we are in the EU, we are not allowed to cut this tax. When we Vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax.” (Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Gisela Stuart, writing in The Sun)

“We could ensure that if we leave not only can we spend that money on our priorities, we can also get rid of VAT on fuel. As long as we are in the EU we cannot remove VAT on any product and that will save the average family £60 a year.” (Michael Gove on Good Morning Britain, quoted by International Business Times)

“We'll have more money to spend on our priorities, wages will be higher and fuel bills will be lower.” (Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Gisela Stuart, writing in the Sun, quoted by International Business Times)


Truth:

“EU rules mean the UK cannot reduce VAT on goods and services below 15%, the standard rate of VAT in the EU. The standard rate of VAT in the UK is 20%, so the government could reduce it by up to 5% today if it wanted. Domestic fuel is on a special list of pre-approved goods and services that are subject to lower VAT rates and it would require the agreement of all other EU members to reduce it further... [Countries in the EU] have an option of applying one or two reduced rates, no lower than 5%, to certain specified goods on a pre-approved list.”


Links:



9 - David Cameron's deal wasn't legally binding


Lie(s):

“Mr Gove told the BBC: 'The facts are the European Court of Justice is not bound by this agreement until the treaties are changed and we don't know when that will be.'“ (Michael Gove, quoted in the Daily Mail)

"Increasingly clear the EU agreement has no force in law. Those arguing it does are having their argument undermined by EU politicians daily." (eurosceptic Tory backbencher Andrew Percy in a tweet - he has since deleted his Twitter account, but it's quoted in a Daily Mail article)


Truth:

“The EU deal has lots of different parts. It’ll all be legally binding in one way or another.” “The agreement is already, in its pre-ratified form, a binding international legal agreement.“


Links:



10 - The UK rebate can be changed against our will


Lie(s):

“Our rebate is not a permanent and unalterable feature of our membership. It's a negotiated settlement... which could be eroded.”(Michael Gove, quoted by the BBC)

“The rebate has been cut in the past, and it will be cut in the future again if we stay in.”

(Michael Gove, on BBC's Question Time EU Special, quoted by the Guardian)

“the rebate is not a fixed benefit anchored in the treaties. It is there only by the consent of other EU nations, it has to be negotiated, it has already been reduced, and if we vote to stay it can, and will, be whittled away.” (Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Gisela Stuart, Statement on NHS funding)


Truth:

“The level of the UK rebate is decided every seven years, as part of the EU's long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which is negotiated by the EU leaders.... with the EU leaders required to approve the MFF unanimously, the UK could use its veto to stop the erosion of the rebate. [Michael Gove is] right that the rebate is not a permanent feature of EU membership, but the UK has a veto over the process that would scrap or reduce it.”


Links:



11 - Health tourists have cost the NHS billions


Lie(s):

"Health tourism from the EU has cost us billions. This money could have been much better spent - it could have been invested to improve care for NHS patients.”

(Gisela Stuart, quoted in the Daily Mail)

“As the increasingly bitter referendum campaign turned to healthcare issues, it was claimed this left the NHS with a £5.78billion funding black hole. Labour MP Gisela Stuart argued last night: “Health tourism from the EU has cost us billions”.

(Gisela Stuart, quoted in the Sun)


Truth:

“Research commissioned by the Department for Health has estimated the gross cost of 'deliberate' health tourism for urgent treatment in England to anywhere between £110 million and £280 million. Which barely compares to the £1.8 billion gross cost for 'normal' use of the NHS.”


Links:



12 - CAP adds £400 to UK food bills


Lie(s):

“The demented Common Agricultural Policy, massively over-bureaucratic and prescriptive, adds about £400 to the cost of food for every household in this country.”

(Boris Johnson, speech on 11 March 2016, whole speech on YouTube, also quoted in the Daily Mirror)

“the Common Agricultural Policy [ … ] effectively adds around £400 to each family’s living costs each year” (Leave.eu website, quoted by the House of Commons Treasury select committee)

“Ditching the common agricultural policy would cut food bills by up to 17 per cent.”

(Dominic Raab, writing in the Sunday Times)


Truth:

“Although the CAP is in desperate need of reform, the £400 annual figure is wildly exaggerated. According to the Office for National Statistics, household expenditure on food, drink, alcohol, cigarettes and narcotics is roughly £70 per week. Contrary to eurosceptic claims, ditching the CAP would save 1% on food bills – 70p per week, or just over £36 per year.”


Links:



13 - EU red tape costs us £600m per week

Lie(s):

“[when we leave the EU] we wouldn’t have all the EU regulations which cost our economy £600 million every week”. (Michael Gove, on the Today Program)

“The cost of EU regulation on British companies has been estimated by the independent think tank Open Europe at about £600million every week.” (Michael Gove, writing for the Huffington Post)

“EU regulation costs UK small businesses over £600 million every week.” (Vote Leave campaign literature, quoted by the House of Commons Treasury select committee)


Truth:

The claim that EU regulations cost the economy £600 million every week comes from a paper by the Open Europe think tank. It has added up predicted costs of EU regulations from government impact assessments, but doesn't take into account the predicted benefits in calculating the figure.


£600 million every week is equivalent to £33.3 billion per year. The Open Europe research doesn't indicate we would save £33 billion if we leave. In March 2015, Open Europe calculated a maximum possible saving of £24.4 billion per year, and a more “politically feasible” one of £12.8 billion. But even these figures overestimate Brexit savings.


Links:



14 - The UK is always outvoted


Lie(s):

“The case is that whenever Britain has said that we object to or oppose these rules, we've been consistently outvoted. We have one commissioner out of 28.”

(Michael Gove, interview with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC)

“Since majority voting was introduced in the late Eighties, the UK has voted against an EU legislative proposal 70 times — and lost 70 times. No other country is so regularly isolated and outvoted.” (Daniel Hannan, quoted in the Daily Mail)

“The UK consistently loses in the EU because other members favour a highly regulated and protectionist economy.” (Jacob Rees-Mogg, quoted in the Daily Express)


Truth:

“Official EU voting records show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999. In other words, UK ministers were on the “winning side” 95% of the time, abstained 3% of the time, and were on the losing side 2%.”


Links:



15 - We won't leave the Single Market


Lie(s):

“Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market” (Daniel Hannan MEP, in an interview with Channel 4 news)

“Only a madman would actually leave the Market” (Owen Paterson MP, Vote Leave backer)

Norway are in the Single Market but not the EU:

“Wouldn't it be terrible if we were really like Norway and Switzerland? Really? They're rich. They're happy. They're self-governing” (Nigel Farage)

“The Norwegian option, the EEA option, I think that it might be initally attractive for some business people” (Matthew Elliot, Vote Leave chief executive)


Truth:

Even during the 2016 Referendum campaign, people were talking about leaving the Single Market. In February 2016, Nigel Farage said explicitly that he did not wish the UK to be part of the Single Market. Farage had previously said on the Andrew Marr Show, "I would want access to the Single Market, but I don't want to be a member of the Single Market."


Many senior figures on the Leave side said we would leave the single market , including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. In an interview with Andrew Marr on 8 May 2016, Michael Gove said: “We should be outside the single market. We should have access to the single market, but we should not be governed by the rules that the European Court of Justice imposes on us.”


Links:



16 - EU needs UK trade more than vice versa


Lie(s):

“The EU needs a trade deal with us more than we need a trade deal with them”.

(Vote Leave's John Moynihan on Radio 4's Today programme, quoted on the BBC website)

“The French export huge amounts of food to us. The French farmers would riot if they thought we were going to enter into a trade war”. (Vote Leave's John Moynihan)

"Within minutes of a vote for #Brexit CEO’s would be knocking down Chancellor Merkel’s door. Demanding access to the British market" (David Davis, Tweet)

“We run a massive trade deficit with the EU (but a surplus with the rest of the world). On the day we left, we’d become the EU’s single biggest market, accounting for 21 per cent of its exports – more than its second and third largest markets (the US and Japan) combined.” (Dan Hannan MEP)


Truth:

“The UK, along with Germany and France, is one of the three largest and most powerful EU members.... But the Brexit negotiations pit us against the combined might of all the other 27 EU countries. Collectively, they are five times bigger than us. Our exports to the rest of the club account for 12% of our GDP; their exports to us amount to only 3% of their GDP. Of course, the EU will be damaged by Brexit, especially if it is acrimonious. But we will be hurt more proportionately.”


Links:

After Brexit: how important would UK trade be to the EU? (National Institute of Economic and Social Research)



17 - Auditors still refuse to sign off the EU accounts

Lie(s):

“The EU budget is so wasteful and so corrupt that the Court of Auditors has not signed off the accounts for the last 20 years.” (Boris Johnson)

“the European Union... haven't had their accounts signed off for 20 years.” (Philip Davies, quoted on the BBC website)

“[the EU is] corrupt and so riddled with fraud that the auditors have felt unable to sign off its accounts for nigh on 20 years” (Bernard Ingham, column in the Yorkshire Post and quoted in the Daily Telegraph)


Truth:

“The Court of Auditors has 'signed off; on the EU budget every year since 2007. What confuses people is the 'estimated error rate' – the amount of money that should not have been paid out, due to complex eligibility rules and overestimates of farmers which the EU tries to claw back after the budget, as well as other reasons. The auditors have stressed it is 'not a measure of fraud, inefficiency or waste'. The 'overall rate of material error' was 4.4% in the 2014 EU budget, but this needs to be less than 2% 'free of material error'. This is not ideal, but also not the same as not having the accounts signed off.”


Links:



18 - The Irish border will be unaffected by Brexit


Lie(s):

“I think that the land border we share with Ireland can be as free-flowing after a Brexit vote as it is today. There is no reason why we have to change the border arrangements in the event of a Brexit because they have been broadly consistent in the 100 years since the creation of Ireland as a separate state. ” (Theresa Villiers on Sky News' Murnaghan show, quoted on the Sky News website)

“There is no reason why the UK’s only land border should be any less open after Brexit than it is today.” (Theresa Villiers, speech the Financial Times Future of Europe conference)

“There's been a free travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for, I think, getting on for 100 years. There's no reason at all why that should cease to be the case.” (Boris Johnson, quoted on the BBC website)


Truth:

Aoife O’Donoghue, Professor of Law at the University of Durham, explained that the no-border option is off the table: “that’s gone. If the UK had chosen to stay in the customs union and the single market, you could do that. But in deciding not to, that means there has to be some form of border.”


Academics at the Universities of Birmingham, Durham and Newcastle, explained why in a recent policy paper: “Any approach which does not involved the UK remaining within the EU Single Market and the EU Customs Union will result in the imposition of some physical border controls because the legal guarantees of regulatory equivalence, mutual recognition, and non-barriers will require checks.”


Links:



19 - We can’t control our borders in the EU


Lie(s):

“People have every right to question why we can't control our borders. We need to answer those concerns by taking back control of those borders." (Boris Johnson, statement on immigration statistics)

Vote Leave... says on its website that free movement of people means the UK has “almost no control over who enters Britain from Europe” and makes it “much harder to fight terrorism”. (Vote Leave website)

“The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights prevent us from deporting violent criminals & gives the EU court power over almost any security issue.” (Vote Leave website)


Truth:

“Despite what Brexiteers say, Britain doesn’t need to “reclaim control of its borders”. Anyone who wants to enter the UK still needs to present a passport or a national identity card issued by a EEA country for security checks by the UK Border Force."


Links:




20 - UK can’t deport EU criminals


Lie(s):

“They [the EU] restrict our ability to deport criminals and people who are a threat to the security of this country.” (Boris Johnson, speech on 11 March 2016, whole speech on YouTube)

“Free movement of people allows unelected judges in the rogue European Court to decide who we can and can't deport. This puts British families at risk.” (Dominic Raab, quoted in the Independent)

“Dominic Raab, who works closely with Michael Gove in the Justice department, said that British families are 'at risk' because European courts are refusing to allow UK judges to deport dangerous and violent criminals back to EU countries.”

“The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights prevent us from deporting violent criminals & gives the EU court power over almost any security issue." (Vote Leave website)


Truth:

Eurosceptics claim that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is “preventing” the UK from deporting someone with a terrorist criminal conviction. ECJ advocate general Maciej Szpunar has said that such a deportation could go ahead - even if a criminal has a child that is a British citizen - if there is a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat… based on an imperative reason relating to public security”. The advocate general leaves it for the British courts to decide whether there is a threat. “If someone is dangerous, then that’s the end of it; deportation can still proceed”, says QC Alper Riza.


In European case law, compelling reasons of public security have always been accepted as grounds to deport criminals - no matter how long they have been in the UK. Also, since 2010 the European Arrest Warrant has allowed the UK to deport 6.500 criminals from other EU countries.


Links:



21 - We thought we were only joining a free trade zone


Lie(s):

“The EEC that Britain joined in 1973 as essentially a super-free-trade area has since extended its jurisdiction to foreign policy, environmental regulation, immigration, criminal justice and social policy.... A Common Market has been turned into a quasi-state.” (Daniel Hannan, quoted in the Daily Mail)

“The EEC was supposed to be all about free trade.” (Daniel Hannan, column on Conservative Home website)

“This will be the biggest outreach campaign from the Eurosceptic movement since the 1975 EEC referendum when so many were tricked into voting for what they thought would just be a common market and turned into the bullying, authoritarian EU we see today.” (Nigel Farage, writing in the Daily Express)

“In the 28 years since I first started writing for this paper about the Common Market – as it was then still known – the project has morphed and grown in such a way as to be unrecognisable,” (Boris Johnson, writing in the Daily Telegraph)

“The [1975 UK] referendum campaign and debate focused on the UK being a member of the ‘Common Market’, with many voters subsequently feeling they had been cheated when the political aspects of the project came to the fore.” (Open Europe)


Truth:

The government of the day spelled out clearly that 'if the political implications of joining Europe are at present clearest in the economic field, it is because the Community is primarily concerned with economic policy. But it is inevitable that the scope should broaden as member countries’ interests become harmonised […] What is proposed is a sharing and an enlargement of individual national sovereignties in the general interest'."


The Daily Mail (leader, 4 June 1975) referred explicitly to the goal of “political union”, saying that this was no “dark secret”. It asked whether the anti-Europeans hadn’t been listening “to the visionary words of European leaders for the past twenty-five years?”:


The Daily Telegraph opined that defence, foreign affairs and economics must all be harnessed to the task of strengthening Europe.


Many of the changes Brexiters dislike and claim they were misled about – free movement, harmonised taxation, social and labour provisions, the supremacy of European law – were spelled out in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, whose preamble also referred to an “ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe”.


Links:



Whew! That's the end of it. My personal list of the top 21 biggest whoppers told by the various Leave campaigns and their supporters, complete with links to the original claims (wherever possible) and the articles rebutting them.


Other lists of Leave lies are out there - two that spring to mind are Richard Corbett's Long List of Leave Lies and the Brexit Lies website.


Anyway, I hope you find this useful. Maybe you should bookmark it, so you have the facts to hand, ready to cut and paste when you need them?



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