Roadmap

Work began work on debunking the list on 14th May 2025.
10 on the list will be debunked each week until complete.
After completion, a foreward and index will be written for the book.
We will then self publish the book, digitally and in-print, for Summer 2025.

1-10 > 16th May 2025 > COMPLETE
11-20 > 23rd May 2025
21-30 > 30th May 2025
31-40 > 6th June 2025
41-50 > 13th June 2025
51-60 > 20th June 2025
61-75 > 27th June 2025

Before we begin

When you see the amount of money 'saved' in the various 'benefits' below, it is important to always put them in context of how much Brexit has cost us.

Amount it cost to conduct the referendum
£129 million / one off

CBI report, UK's net benefit of EU membership
£73-£91 billion / year

London Assembly report, Loss to UK economy due to Brexit
£140 billion (as of 2023)

Finally, Brexit is not 'done' contrary to popular belief. Every time work is done to continue the enactment of Brexit, money is spent. From hiring teams of negotiators to teams of administrators and law firms to write legislation.
There are currently no figures for these costs, as the government from 2016 to the current government refuse to calculate them and publish them for the public to see. Wonder why? We are working on a petition on the parliament petition website and a freedom of information request to find this out.

For daily reports about the damage Brexit is doing to the UK, bookmark the 'Brexit Carnage' website here...

Let's get debunking...
1 - 10

1

"As one of the larger economies of the EU, the UK was a net contributor to the EU budget - which means that it paid in more each year than it received in return.
The UK was responsible for 12.5% of the annual core budget of the EU, which in 2024 was €189 Billion - which would in turn have resulted in a gross contribution from the UK of around €24 Billion, were it still to be a member.
This would have meant a likely net contribution of around €14-16 Billion in 2024 (after rebate and UK spending) - money that can now be spent in the UK instead of in other EU member states."

DEBUNKED
If the monies gained is less than what was the total lost due to leaving, it is not a benefit.

The CBI has written in detail about the net benefit to the UK from its membership of the EU. This takes into account the contribution for membership minus the revenue back into the UK from business tax paid by businesses trading in the EU plus tariffs. Their conclusion is the UK's net benefit of EU membership to the UK was around 4-5% of GDP, or £73bn-91bn per annum in 2014 GDP (£2,700-£3,300 per household).

This does not even account for the amount of money spent to conduct the referendum and enact Brexit. That was £129million to conduct the referendum and an unknown amount to administrate Brexit itself, due to every government including the current government refusing to hold an inquiry to find out. Money is still being spent to this day enacting Brexit.

2

"As an EU member state within the Customs Union, 75% of all customs revenue (it was 80% at the time the UK voted to leave) goes into the budget of the EU. Now outside of the EU, the UK HMRC receives 100% of that revenue, to spend on public services - currently estimated at around £2-3 Billion extra a year."

DEBUNKED
If the monies gained is less than what was the total lost due to leaving, it is not a benefit.

The CBI has written in detail about the net benefit to the UK from its membership of the EU. This takes into account the contribution for membership minus the revenue back into the UK from business tax paid by businesses trading in the EU and tariffs. Their conclusion is the UK's net benefit of EU membership to the UK was around 4-5% of GDP, or £73bn-91bn per annum in 2014 GDP (£2,700-£3,300 per household).

This does not even account for the amount of money spent to conduct the referendum and enact Brexit. That was £129million to conduct the referendum and an unknown amount to administrate Brexit itself, due to every government including the current government refusing to hold an inquiry to find out. Money is still being spent to this day enacting Brexit.

3

"In January 2021, the EU introduced a new source of funds, in the form of an annual fee to be paid by member states. This fee was to be paid at a rate of €0.80, for every kilogram of plastic packaging produced by the member state but not recycled. In 2021, the UK is estimated to have produced 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging, with 1.4 million tonnes believed to have not been recycled. This would have resulted in the UK having to pay an additional €1.12 Billion into the EU coffers in 2021. To be clear - this additional EU funding does not go towards efforts to reduce plastic pollution, and does not act as a deterrent. It is simply an additional vehicle for topping up the EU budget. The UK avoids this completely."

DEBUNKED

All taxes designed to deter behaviour, including in the UK such as tax on nicotine and alcohol, goes into the government's
budget. This applies to UK taxes, EU taxes and taxes around the World. These taxes still deter behaviour. Smoking in the UK, for example, has reduced by almost 10% from 2011 - 2022 with the biggest reason stated as the price.

Plastic pollution causes significant harm to the environment by polluting ecosystems, threatening wildlife, and contributing to
climate change. It disrupts habitats, harms animals, and releases harmful chemicals into the environment. Furthermore, plastic production and disposal contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

4

"As an EU member, the UK took part in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), where large emitters of so-called greenhouse gases are allocated an allowance per year of how much they can emit, and can buy or sell these allowances on a per tonne basis. The revenue from this scheme would go to the member states, but only after the EU had taken around 25% off the top for its own Innovation and Modernisation Funds - and the other 75% it would allocate to the member states how it saw fit. Now the UK is outside the EU, it has its own Emissions Trading Scheme - and keeps 100% of the revenue to spend on whatever it deems appropriate to do so. In the final year of the UK participating fully in the EU ETS, the UK saw £1.4 Billion of the revenue. In 2023, this was £5.8 Billion. The UK economy is seeing billions more in revenue than it otherwise would have, due to having left the EU."

DEBUNKED
If the monies gained is less than what was the total lost due to leaving, it is not a benefit.

The CBI has written in detail about the net benefit to the UK from its membership of the EU. This takes into account the contribution for membership minus the revenue back into the UK from business tax paid by businesses trading in the EU and tariffs. Their conclusion is the UK's net benefit of EU membership to the UK was around 4-5% of GDP, or £73bn-91bn per annum in 2014 GDP (£2,700-£3,300 per household).

This does not even account for the amount of money spent to conduct the referendum and enact Brexit. That was £129million to conduct the referendum and an unknown amount to administrate Brexit itself, due to every government including the current government refusing to hold an inquiry to find out. Money is still being spent to this day enacting Brexit.

5

"The new EU Migration Pact mandates each member state to take their share of at least 30,000 asylum seeker relocations a year, or pay €20,000 each for every one refused. The UK share, 13%, would have been at least 3,900 a year - or €78 Million. In 2022 over 966,000 asylum applicants arrived into the EU. If these were all assigned through the migration pact across the EU member states, and the UK was still a member, this would have been over 124,000 people - or a cost of €2.5 Billion. That is in addition to any migration that occurs already, through small boats or otherwise."

DEBUNKED

The United Kingdom had an opt-out from Justice and Home Affairs policies, under Protocol 21 of the Treaty on European Union. The country would not have been subject to the Pact on Migration and Asylum.

6

"The UKs most popular payment method, owing to its speed and convenience, is the use of contactless. In October 2021, the FCA allowed UK banks to offer contactless payments for transactions up to £100 - and in 2023 a record 93.4% of all in-store transactions under £100 were paid for using contactless. The EU has a 50 EUR (£42) limit on contactless payments, and there were 1.59 billion in-store contactless card transactions in the UK in March 2024 - so many many hundreds of millions of those transactions were only possible in seconds instead of minutes, because the UK left the EU. That is quite literally hundreds of thousands of hours a year in queuing, avoided by UK consumers thanks to leaving the EU."

DEBUNKED

The FCA is looking at whether removing or increasing the contactless limit could benefit consumers, merchants and economic growth in the UK. This is due to a growth in contactless fraud partly atributed to the increased limit.

7

"The UK previously had access to around 43 active trade deals as part of its EU membership – a membership that, as one of the largest net contributors, it paid Billions of taxpayer money each year for the privilege (see Benefit 1). The UK has replicated all but 3 of these (Bosnia, Montenegro, Algeria), but no longer has the annual membership fee to pay in order to do so - and can enter into negotiations bilaterally to improve on them should it wish to do so (and has done, with multiple countries)."

DEBUNKED

All trade deals done since leaving the EU amount to a fraction of the hit to the economy due to leaving the EU (see 1). For example, the recently announced USA deal - the biggest of all deals possible - amounts to 0.1% for the UK economy compared to 4% lost from the economy (see 1).

The EU accounted for between 50% and 53% of UK imports between 2010 and 2020. This fell to 47% in 2021 and 2022. It increased to 51% in 2024, largely due to a fall in goods imports from non-EU countries, especially fuel.

8

"Since leaving the EU, the UK has been able to improve on the deals rolled over with Japan, Singapore and Ukraine - and is in the process of improving the deals with Mexico, Switzerland, Israel, Türkiye and South Korea. As well as striking completely new deals with Australia and New Zealand, the UK is also close to completion on FTA negotiations with India and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—all not possible within the EU. Since their election in Summer 2024, the Labour Party government has continued this project of trade deal improvement - so the fact that EU FTAs are sub-par and able to be improved upon bilaterally is not a partisan position."

DEBUNKED

The EU accounted for between 50% and 53% of UK imports between 2010 and 2020. This fell to 47% in 2021 and 2022. It increased to 51% in 2024, largely due to a fall in goods imports from non-EU countries, especially fuel.

Trade deals being done, are done from a position of weakness on our own, compared to being done when in the world's largest trading block as one. The EU is in final stages of its own trade deal with India and we will then be able to compare the UK deal with the EU deal. The Australia deal, which caused Australian News networks to literally laugh at the UK on air about, was even described as poor by the politician who bagged it.

9

"By leaving the EU, the UK has been able to start the process of realignment with those markets in the world that are projecting the highest growth over the coming decades (the “Indo-Pacific Tilt”), as opposed to being tied to a bloc projected by its own economists no less to see declining relevance and stagnation. The UKs accession to the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade bloc was signed in Summer 2023, with the accession coming into effect on 15th December 2024"

DEBUNKED

Alignment with these markets that come with their own laws we would have to follow, pale into insignificance compared to our trade with our closest trading partner - the EU - which the UK played a huge part in the writing of its laws since its beginning. The vast majority of EU law was compatible with UK laws, hence why most of it has been retained in UK law after Brexit - despite a whole department being set up headed by Jacob Rees Mogg to get rid of them.
The EU accounted for between 50% and 53% of UK imports between 2010 and 2020. This fell to 47% in 2021 and 2022. It increased to 51% in 2024, largely due to a fall in goods imports from non-EU countries, especially fuel.

The UK can leave CPTPP at any time, with 6 months notice and no penalties.

10

"The ending of Freedom of Movement (FoM) for EU citizens within the UK, allowed for equal application of UK entry rights for both EU and Non-EU citizens, including the default refusal of entry where someone has been in prison for a year or more. The implementation of this equal treatment resulted in over 12,000 EU citizens being refused entry to the UK in 2023 - who would’ve otherwise been granted entry under EU Freedom of Movement. Leaving the EU quite literally means less criminals on the UKs streets."

DEBUNKED

It is true that the UK has turned away more EU citizens coming here to work since ending freedom of movement. However, with between 50-75% of businesses (depending on the sector) reporting huge employment gaps, it's hard to see how this is a benefit. There is also no evidence to suggest EU citizens who had previously served time in prison came to the UK and committed further crimes.

These shortages have contributed to the cost of living crisis in the UK, especially because of HGV Driver shortages. The cost of transporting goods has gone up due to these shortages, which occur around the world, but made worse in the UK by leaving the single market. These costs are passed on to stores, which in turn are passed on to consumers. Almost everything in the UK is delivered with heavy goods vehicles.

Roadmap

Work began work on debunking the list on 14th May 2025.
10 on the list will be debunked each week until complete.
After completion, a foreward and index will be written for the book.
We will then self publish the book, digitally and in-print, for Summer 2025.

1-10 > 16th May 2025 > COMPLETE
11-20 > 23rd May 2025
21-30 > 30th May 2025
31-40 > 6th June 2025
41-50 > 13th June 2025
51-60 > 20th June 2025
61-75 > 27th June 2025