Maybe they should’ve printed the cost of exiting the EU on the side of the red bus too.
The right-wing press is having a meltdown as the sheer scale and cost of Brexit becomes ever clearer, with post-Brexit payments to the EU set to surpass £50billion.
Data from the ONS shows that the UK gave £3.25billion to Brussels last year. That means that the total paid to the European Union since Britain officially left in 2020 to approximately £44billion, with an additional commitment to providing at least £8billion more as part of the exit deal.
The eye watering sums of money were agreed by the last Conservative government as part of the exit agreement, and form part of financial settlements which are in place to honour existing commitments such as pension schemes and infrastructure projects which were funded in part by payments from the UK.
Reacting to the news, right-wing media outlets couldn’t quite believe what has happened, with GB News running a headline calling it a ‘slap in the face of British taxpayers’, while the Express screamed ‘Fury as UK set for post-Brexit £50bn payment to the EU in major ‘slap in the face’.
Maybe they should’ve printed the cost of exiting the EU on the side of the red bus too.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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