Andrew Tyrie questions Dominic Cummings of Vote Leave
I don't think I have ever seen a conversation in which someone shows themselves as shockingly divorced from reality as the Campaign Director of Vote Leave demonstrated himself to be in this interview before the Treasury select committee.
For the benefit of anyone who is not already aware of this, £19.1 billion is the annual sum which Britain would have had to pay the EU but for the dedicated negotiation on our behalf of a great prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. However, thanks to Maggie a rebate of £6 billion is applied before the payment is made, and that money never leaves the UK treasury. £13 billion is the sum actually paid to the EU.
This is no more a matter of opinion than that 2 + 2 = 4.
Andrew Tyrie is therefore right to challenge the figures produced by Vote Leave and Dominic Cummings is making an error of fact when he claims that Britain pays the EU £19 billion a year or £350 million a week. This is recognised even by intelligent leave supporters like Richard North who writes here that
"This £350m figure is completely discredited and even many of the apparatchiks dutifully toeing the line don't actually believe it. But not one of them has the courage to confront Dominic Cummings, author of this stupidity."
The interview below even had Simon Heffer asking: "Whose side is Vote Leave really on?" Heffer refers to Cummings's appearance as a "bizarre performance", which "left some of us wondering whether he was on day release from a secure facility".
From Vote Leave's perspective it goes down from there, a point recognised by intelligent Leave supporters (see next post ...)
For the benefit of anyone who is not already aware of this, £19.1 billion is the annual sum which Britain would have had to pay the EU but for the dedicated negotiation on our behalf of a great prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. However, thanks to Maggie a rebate of £6 billion is applied before the payment is made, and that money never leaves the UK treasury. £13 billion is the sum actually paid to the EU.
This is no more a matter of opinion than that 2 + 2 = 4.
Andrew Tyrie is therefore right to challenge the figures produced by Vote Leave and Dominic Cummings is making an error of fact when he claims that Britain pays the EU £19 billion a year or £350 million a week. This is recognised even by intelligent leave supporters like Richard North who writes here that
"This £350m figure is completely discredited and even many of the apparatchiks dutifully toeing the line don't actually believe it. But not one of them has the courage to confront Dominic Cummings, author of this stupidity."
The interview below even had Simon Heffer asking: "Whose side is Vote Leave really on?" Heffer refers to Cummings's appearance as a "bizarre performance", which "left some of us wondering whether he was on day release from a secure facility".
From Vote Leave's perspective it goes down from there, a point recognised by intelligent Leave supporters (see next post ...)
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