Boris Johnson has abused the facts repeatedly during the campaign. Here are his top ten errors.
Boris Blunder: “Our gross contributions to the EU budget are now running at about £20 billion a year … the net contribution is £10 billion.”
InFact: Our gross contribution is £12.9 billion and our net contribution is £6.3 billion.
Boris Blunder: “Claims made for the Single Market are looking increasingly fraudulent.”
InFact: The Single Market removes obstacles for British exporters, enabling to them to export more.
Boris Blunder: “The United States of America have access” to the Single Market.
InFact: The United States trades with the EU on the basis of World Trade Organization rules. But these leave plenty of barriers in place, especially for trade in services.
Boris Blunder: The EU has rules on “how old a child has to be before he or she can blow up a balloon”.
InFact: The EU has merely recommended adult supervision.
Boris Blunder: “Brexit would leave arrangements on the Irish border “absolutely unchanged.”
InFact: The UK would have to harden the Irish border if it is serious about controlling inflows of EU citizens.
Boris Blunder: Britain will be dragged “willy-nilly” into a European superstate if we stay in the EU.
InFact: If the EU were ever to create a superstate, Britain would not be part of it.
Boris Blunder: “We find ourselves hard pressed to recruit people who might work in our NHS, as opposed to make use of its services.”
InFact: Almost one in ten NHS doctors come from the EU, and migrants are a net benefit to the health service.
Boris Blunder: “The House of Commons Library has repeatedly confirmed that when you add primary and secondary legislation together the EU is now generating 60% of the laws passing through parliament.”
InFact: The whole exercise of quantifying laws is spurious.
Boris Blunder: The EU is responsible for “£600 million worth of extra regulation per week for UK businesses.”
InFact: The study cited by Johnson also reports that this regulation generates £1.1 billion per week in benefits.
Boris Blunder: “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.”
InFact: The auditor has repeatedly approved the EU’s accounts.
This article is an amended version of one which originally appeared on InFacts
Edited by Hugo Dixon
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