The Chancellor’s attempt to blame Brexit for the fiscal mess she finds herself in has been discredited on the eve of her Budget.
Speaking at a key international economic committee at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October, Rachel Reeves claimed Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal inflicted “long-term” damage on the British economy, and she has been dealt a bad hand as a result.
She told chief bankers and economic gurus: “The UK’s productivity challenge has been compounded by the way in which the UK left the European Union.”
GB News has since scrutinised that claim and found extensive evidence to the contrary.
Previous figures from Brexit Facts4EU and The Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK), shared exclusively with People’s Channel, show Britain soaring after leaving the EU.
The charts also suggest that the economic dark clouds gathering are very much of the Chancellor’s own making.
Now, a new report compiled from the same think tank delves further into the state of the economy after Britain’s historic departure from the bloc – and found it has been purring.
All charts below show the figures in real terms, after excluding the effects of inflation.
Real GDP per head rose following a post-Covid slump
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FACTS4EU
The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that Brexit has delivered a 12 per cent rise in the UK’s economy plus a six per cent rise in real GDP per head.
GDP growth is narrowly ahead of the figure in France and almost double the rate of Germany’s sluggish 5.7 per cent.
In real terms, the gap between Britain and Germany is even bigger – with the UK’s 14 per cent growth outpacing the 2.2 per cent recorded by Europe’s largest economy.
Meanwhile, Brexit Britain recovered from a post-Covid slump as real GDP per capita jumped from £37,936 in 2015 to £40,172 last year.
UK GDP has risen by 12.1 per cent in real terms since EU referendum
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FACTS4EU
The figure had dipped to just over £36,000 when the outbreak reached British shores, before sustained growth returned the figure above 2016 levels.
The bombshell data leaves Rachel Reeves – and her pro-EU Treasury colleagues – with nowhere to go.
When she rises to speak in the Commons tomorrow, the Chancellor will have to find other excuses for her tax rises.
In a warning to the Chancellor, Facts4EU chairman Leigh Evans told GB News: “When Ms Reeves reads this, we’re afraid it will ruin her Budget Eve.
GDP has drastically outstripped Germany’s since 2020
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FACTS4EU
“It completely overturns the conclusions of the academic paper given to her beloved OBR last week.
“Instead of making minor improvements to her speech tomorrow, she will be forced into a major rewrite of all those parts where she tries to put the blame for her tax rises on Brexit.
“If she tries to carry on regardless, then what is left of her credibility is going to come under severe pressure, to say the least.”
Ex-Welsh Secretary Sir John Redwood added: “The Budget this week will brief against Brexit, falsely claiming it has cost us when it is now saving us billions in payments we no longer have to make to the EU.
“If the Chancellor was presenting a budget based on rejoining the EU, she would need to put taxes up by another. £25billion to pay all the EU bills.
“Her easiest and best spending cut would be refusal to pay anything for a so called EU re set.
“Paying to be subjected to more EU rules and control would make us poorer and would undermine the opportunities of Brexit.”
Remainer doomsters had previously predicted Brexit would wipe four per cent from Britain’s economy.