BBC Question Time hosted an all-Leave audience to mark the seventh anniversary of Britain’s split with the European Union on Thursday night.
Seven years ago, on 23rd June 2016, Brits backed Brexit after being promised cheaper food, cheaper clothes and more money for the NHS if we were left to go it alone.
As Alastair Campbell pointed out below, very few (if any) of Vote Leave’s campaign commitments have been delivered.
Yet there are still people out there clinging to the belief that Brexit was the right thing to do.
A poll carried out by the BBC ahead of the Question Time special found 70 per cent of audience members still agree that the split with the EU was the right thing to do, while just 20 per cent would vote differently.
Of the arguments that are still being bounded about, three usually get rolled out on repeat – none of which really stand up to scrutiny.
Here’s a look at what they are:
It‘s too early to tell
‘It’s too early to tell’ has been a common trope rolled out by Brexiteers for some years now, and it’s about as convenient a defence as you can get.
Global events have masked the impact Brexit has had on the economy, but there is no escaping the fact that the UK constantly ranks at the bottom of all G7 nations in almost all economic indicators.
Has the war in Ukraine and Covid caused a global market wobble? Yes. Has Brexit exacerbated these global head winds and then some? Also yes.
It is also worth noting that global events are likely to be a common contributing factor moving forward too. Instability in Asia, Africa and the effects of climate change all threaten to cause problems, and it is worth noting that the strength of an economy is measured both in how well it grows and how resilient it is to these head winds.
We got our sovereignty back
As Rory Stewart pointed out in a recent episode of The Rest Is Politics, some Brexit voters are happy to swallow many of the negative impacts of Brexit if it means Britain gets its sovereignty back.
But has that actually happened?
According to a recent research paper, notions of ‘taking back control’ were grossly misunderstood during the referendum, and the reality is that Brexit has meant throwing control away, not taking it back.
Trading across borders has meant regulating across borders, with new controls set to be implemented from the autumn due to make trade far more cumbersome.
Travelling, similarly, will become equally tiresome when the new entry/exit system (EES) is up and running later this year, while Jacob Rees-Mogg’s pledge of a ‘bonfire of EU legislation’ have been pushed back indefinitely.
As Dr Nick Westcott notes, “ultimately, real sovereignty means having a seat at the table, a voice in the debate and a vote on the outcome.
“Brexit threw all that away: we are left with a paper sovereignty that sounds good but has no effect.”
Vaccine roll out
Claims that the UK was able to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine more quickly because of Brexit have been independently checked by almost every fact checker out there, and they have all come to the same conclusion; it’s an absolute nonsense.
Full Fact concluded that, under European law, the UK was permitted to act independently to approve the vaccine in an emergency.
Channel 4, similarly, came to the same conclusion, as did the Institute for Government and many, many others.
So let’s just park that one there, shall we?
Related: Hitched To A Wagon Of Lies