Michael Gove told Sky News’ Faisal Islam that the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) had said Brexit would free up billions to spend on doctors and tax cuts. In fact, the IFS report said the opposite. It has now slammed Gove, saying: “Leaving the EU would not, as Michael Gove claims we said, leave more money to spend on the NHS. Rather it would leave us spending less on public services, or taxing more, or borrowing more”.
Gove told Sky: “There are billions of pounds that we send to the European Union every year, and the IFS has pointed out that if we took that money back, we could spend it on our NHS, we could use it to reduce VAT on fuel”.
The original IFS report that the Vote Leave boss purported to quote compared the reduced tax revenue that Brexit would bring as a result of economic turmoil to the reduction in payments to the EU. It concluded that Brexit would mean the government would have between £20 billion and £40 billion less to spend.
This wasn’t the only error Gove made in his interview with Islam. He also peddled the untruth that we send £350 million a week to Brussels. InFacts has already explained that, in doing so, he is “either ignorant or lying”.
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Edited by Hugo Dixon
If you lie and continue to pedal that lie and get others to repeat the lie, then eventually the masses with believe it to be the truth. (Paraphrasing Dr Goebbels a little there)