Have Leave Campaigners Changed Their Minds

7/25/2019 Have Leave Campaigners Changed Their Minds

1/7

bbc.com

Reality Check: Have Leavecampaigners changed their minds? -

BBC News

Image copyright EPA

On the fifth day after the referendum in which the UK voted to leave

the European Union, the Reality Check team looks at some of the

claims and promises made during the campaign by Leavecampaigners who now appear to have modified their positions.

Immigration

The campaign claim:Immigration levels could be controlled if the

ty Check: Have Leave campaigners changed their minds? - BBC News about:reader?url=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-refere

6/28/2016


2/7

UK left the EU. This would relieve pressure on public services.

The current claim: Immigration levels can't be radically reduced by

leaving the EU. Fears about immigration did not influence the way

people voted.

Immigration was the key issue of the EU referendum campaign, and

Vote Leave's focus on it was a key part of their strategy.

One of the key claims of the campaign centred around control of

immigration levels.

Responding to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures,

which showed that overall net migration stands at 333,000, MEP

Nigel Farage said: "Mass immigration is still hopelessly out of

control and set to get worse if we remain inside the EU."

These claims were later echoed by Vote Leave campaigner Gisela

Stuart.

She said voting to remain meant there would be "no control" over

migration from the EU, "no matter how great the pressure on

schools, hospitals and housing becomes or how much wages in our

poorest communities are pushed down".

Similarly, leading pro-Leave campaigner and Tory leader frontrunner

Boris Johnson said that the only solution to the scale of immigration

the UK was facing was to leave the EU.

He claimeda vote to stay in the union would mean people "kissing


6/28/2016


3/7

goodbye permanently to control of immigration".

The Leave campaign also repeatedly linked EU migration with

pressure on public services.

On the 20 May, Vote Leave produced a document it claimed outlined

the pressure that migration from the European Union would put on

the NHS - a 28% to 57% increase in demand for accident and

emergency services.

As we discovered, an increasing population would put additional

demand on A&E but the extent of that increase had not been

demonstrated.

But in an article published in the Daily Telegraph on Monday, Mr

Johnson denied a victory for Leave could be linked to immigration.

He wrote: "It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven

by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so."

And speaking to the BBC's Newsnight programme on Saturday,

MEP Daniel Hannan insisted the public had not been misled over

how much control the country would have over immigration

post-Brexit.

In a heated exchange with Evan Davis, he said: "We never said

there was going to be some radical decline ... we want a measure of

control".

"Frankly, if people watching think that they have voted and there is


6/28/2016


4/7

now going to be zero immigration from the EU, they are going to be

disappointed."

Image copyright AFP

Contributions to the EU budget

The campaign claim: We send 350m a week to Brussels, which

could be spent on the NHS instead.

The current claim: The claim was a mistake, and we will not be

able to spend that much extra on the NHS.

One of the most controversial claims of the campaign was that theUK sends 350m a week (or 50m a day) to Brussels, which could

be spent on the NHS instead.

Vote Leave's Gisela Stuart was among those to make the claim,

saying "Every week we send 350m to Brussels. I'd rather that we


6/28/2016


5/7

control how to spend that money, and if I had that control I would

spend it on the NHS."

Many bodies including the UK Statistics Authority pointed out that

we do not send that much a week because the rebate is deducted

before any money is spent.

Over the weekend, Nigel Farage said making the claim had been "a

mistake".

On Sunday's Andrew Marr Show, Iain Duncan Smith was shown a

Vote Leave poster saying: "Let's give our NHS the 350m the EU

takes every week," but he denied that promise had been made andsaid instead that the NHS would receive "the lion's share" of money

that would no longer be spent on the EU.

The actual amount sent to Brussels each week in 2014 was 276m,

a little over 100m of which is spent on things in the UK such as


6/28/2016


6/7

subsidising farmers and funding research, which the Leave

campaign also promised to continue funding until 2020.

The single market

The campaign claim:The UK does not need preferential access to

the single market.

The current claim: The UK should get preferential access to the

single market but will not have to accept freedom of movement to get

it.

During the campaign, some Leave campaigners said that the UK

outside of the EU would not need preferential access to the single

market and would just trade under World Trade Organization rules.

This was the basis of research by Economists for Brexit, who said

the UK should unilaterally remove all tariffs on imports.

But writing in the Telegraph on Monday, Boris Johnson quoted

German employers' organisation the BDI saying there would

continue to be free trade and access to the single market.

The BDI later denied this.

If the UK wanted to retain preferential access to the single market,

many European politicians say it would have to continue to accept

freedom of movement.

Boris Johnson said that British people would continue to be able to


6/28/2016


7/7

live, work and study in the EU, while at the same time the UK would

be able to introduce a points-based system to control migration.

Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling saidthat we would

be able to have a free trade agreement with the EU while at the

same time controlling the flow of people coming into the country.

The UK can certainly aim to secure such a deal.

But no country so far has managed a deal that allows full preferential

access to the single market without having to accept freedom of

movement.

Read more: The facts behind claims in the EU debate


Documents

Have Leave Campaigners Changed Their Minds