'Keir, if Brexit has been so bad, how come we’re all able to spend more since the Referendum?'

With a pro-EU Labour government about to be elected, will this now be under threat?

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

We review how much more we are able to spend – and on what

The latest official figures show consumers are spending more, after inflation, than before the Referendum.

On Friday (28 Jun 2024) the Office for National Statistics released its latest data for household expenditure in the United Kingdom. These clearly show that consumers feel able to spend more now – after adjusting for inflation – than just before the EU Referendum in June 2016. These are therefore real increases.

With a broadly anti-Brexit Labour government about to be elected on Thursday, we de-bunk another of their claims about what it means for the United Kingdom to be outside the EU.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

UK household consumer spending rises in real terms since the Referendum

[Technical description : UK national and domestic household final consumption expenditure, chained volume measures, quarterly data, seasonally adjusted, £ millions.]

[Source : Office for National Statistics, 28 Jun 2024.]

The EU’s players are licking their lips at the prospect of a Labour victory on Thursday

Here is the extremist EU-lover and MEP Guy Verhofstadt yesterday, on 'X' (Twitter), barely able to contain his excitement.

How does all this compare to what Leavers were threatened with?

The above compares with the disaster set to befall every British household if we voted Leave in the ‘In/Out’ EU Referendum just over eight years ago. Naturally a 3% rise is not impressive, but it compares with the far worse predictions of the Remainers at the time. It must also be remembered that the country suffered dramatically during the intervening years as a result of the Covid lockdowns.

That ‘disaster’ is what the British people were threatened with by the government of Cameron-Osborne and the Remain campaign. It was backed by almost every area of the Establishment you can think of. This came to be known as ‘Project Fear’ and in today’s report we disprove yet another aspect of all their fictitious threats to our way of life.

As Britons go to the polling stations in just four days’ time, with a landslide Labour government led by Keir Starmer about to be elected, the figures we are publishing put to the sword another myth about Brexit.

This matters because of what we know about the proclivities of this prospective Labour government and its desire to ‘align more closely’ with the EU. In practice their policies will mean once again bringing back under more EU control over the United Kingdom and its people.

What are we spending our money on?

Naturally the figures below are for the entire United Kingdom and these will therefore vary for each individual household and in which region they live. Nevertheless they provide an interesting insight to how we are all spending our money, on average.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Breakdown of UK household consumer spending

[Technical description : UK national and domestic household final consumption expenditure, chained volume measures, quarterly data, seasonally adjusted, £ millions.]

[Source : Office for National Statistics, 28 Jun 2024.]

Observations

We frequently report on macro-economic data such as GDP. To millions of people this is of little interest. What matters to many of them is how much money they feel able to spend each month.

Had the architects behind Project Fear been right, we would have expected people to be spending less (after inflation), not more.

Relevance to the general election on Thursday

The last eight years have clearly shown that Sir Keir Starmer himself – and almost all his Labour Party – are anti-Brexit. (See our report in May here.)

In order to get elected, Sir Keir has said that he will not take the UK back into the EU’s (failing) Single Market and Customs Union. Unfortunately we believe this to be disingenuous. The evidence comes from the many statements made by Starmer and by his shadow cabinet colleagues in recent months – both in the House of Commons and in interviews. It is their stated intention to ‘align the UK more closely’ with the EU once again.

A large part of the public is favouring Labour because after 14 years of Tory rule people are disappointed and want a change. We believe it will certainly involve a change, but people may once again be surprised and disappointed with what they get for the next five years.

Our view is that we did not vote Brexit and leave the EU, only to be stealthily taken back under the EU’s rules and regulations via an ‘ever closer alignment’ with the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.

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[ Sources: Office for National Statistics ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 30 Jun 2024

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Reader Comments 17

1. Sparky , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 06:07:

The UK did not leave the EU until 2021. Spending only increased between the ref and leaving the EU. The 1st chart above shows how spending has hardly changed since leaving the EU. A look at ONS data on GDP or investment shows a similar pattern.
.
In chart 2 there’s no surprise that housing is the largest expenditure with the rise in interest rates following Liz Truss mini budget.
.
If Labour do win the election it will be because the electorate are rejecting this disastrous Brexit delivering Cons Govt. If Brexit has worked why aren’t the Cons shouting about it.

2. LuxuryBalloon , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 07:55:

Now we are out of the EU, we have been able to remove the hated banker bonus caps. This allowed the bankers to increase their spending on their houses, holidays and restaurant outings and make up for the rest of us who have not felt their real income has increased since the 31 Jan 2020.

3. Gazzablack , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 09:25:

1, sparkless
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Spoiler alert Hiroo
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Liz Truss didn't cause the rise in interest rates cupcake, the BOE's failure to take action to suppress the rise in inflation did.
.

4. NH , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 10:10:

1. Sparky, "spending has hardly changed since leaving the EU"
.
You are contradicting yourself !
Interest rates increased rapidly from the beginning of 2021 (9 months before the Liz Truss budget) to combat inflation. This hugely increased the cost of existing and new credit which would have had a big effect on consumer spending. Despite this, in inflation adjusted terms, UK consumer spending levels were maintained.
.
Why are you not showing where the remainer forecasted "project fear" economic collapse is on this graph ? As you are completely silent on this issue I assume you are now admitting that all remainer forecasts are ridiculous fabrications !

5. Major Graham Lear , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 11:26:

I know I am far better off since we left the EU. My pensions are better and the money I save has been gaining a nice 6% with the Royal Bank of Scotland for the last three years.
So what have I been spending my money on? A landscaped front garden in 2021, a new kitchen in 2021, a new bathroom in 2023, a new car in 2023, in 2024, a new stairlift for my wife and I am having the whole house decorated with new flooring and carpets along with new doors.
As for food bills, yes I have seen an increase in the last three years but in the previous 3 months I have seen a slight decrease in my shopping bill and the reason I know this is the fact, we never vary from what we buy it's the same every week and we use Sainsbury's to deliver it and we can see what we pay every week.
I can see a very big change coming after next week Starmer for all his flannel is a Marxist at heart and his wife is an even bigger one than he is, so he will be listening to her. Taxes will go up for everyone, it's the only way Labour can pay for everything they promise because when Reeves goes to the IMF to borrow that money they will impose restrictions on the Gov just like they did with Healey and we all know what happened back then, so he won't dare upset all the unions, so taxes will rise. Role on 2029

6. David , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 11:45:

Reply to Sparky re comment 1.
Brexit has not worked because we have NOT left the EU - we have BRINO (Brexit in Name Only).
This useless Conservative-in-name-only government that is dominated by Remainers has deliberately sabotaged
and betrayed the result of the EU Referendum.
We have not diverged from EU rules and made it very easy for an incoming Labour government to take us back
into the EU by stealth.
Labour will not offer us another referendum in case the Establishment lose any such Referendum again, so
they will take us back into it in all but name.

7. Mike S , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 12:03:

6 David
I absolutely couldn't agree more with every word you wrote! 100% bang on the money.

8. LuxuryBalloon. , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 12:36:

4 NH ‘Why are you not showing where the remainer forecasted "project fear" economic collapse is on this graph’.
Can I play devil’s advocate? The remainers forced Boris into a deal with the EU through the surrender act. The deal allowed frictionless trade of goods between the UK and the EU, ‘avoiding Project Fear’. But Boris’ deal came at a heavy price: Northern Ireland is still a colony of the EU, EU fishermen are still fishing in our waters and our own fishermen are still with their backs against the wall, the Conservatives have not implemented the bonfire of EI laws to allow us still to be aligned with the EU. And the UK government has replaced EU workers by Commonwealth workers and not reduced immigration. Project Fear avoided by treating Brexit as a damage limitation exercise … and missing out on all the promised Brexit benefits, beside our blue passport and the crown sign on our pint glasses.

9. NH , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 13:41:

8. LB, "But Boris’ deal came at a heavy price"
.
So the Brexit Remainer Message stated: "If we leave the EU and trade with the EU as any other non-EU country the economy will be fine and we will save a lot of money"
.
Here's the details of the "heavy price" that the UK is now paying:
.
We have avoided having approximately £200 Billion of additional debt none of which would have been spent in the UK.
We are now avoiding paying EU membership fees of approximately £30+ Billion per year which increase each year.
We can now control immigration, welfare and services and if Government's don't do this we can get rid of them.
We have removed tariffs on 20% of our imports with more to come.
We have moved from being the world's 7th largest exporter to the 4th largest.
We have become the 2nd world's largest exporter of services.
We can now implement new trade deals that uniquely suit our economy.
UK fishing quotas have increased and will continue to increase.
We have established new Freeports to boost our economy.
We have overtaken China to become the world second largest destination for Greenfield Investment
.
We are now more of a democratic state but the fight is not yet over. Issues such as Northern Ireland, Immigration, EU regulations etc will be solved in the long term by democracy. The decline of EU's main cash cow, the political chaos in other EU nations, the instability of the euro and the disagreements in trade policies is putting the EU in a very fragile position which we are avoiding. The EU has much larger problems than controlling the UK and producing false Brexit information and all of this will work to our advantage over time as we watch the EU become an insignificant part of the world economy.

10. Have You wondered. , Sunday, June 30, 2024, 14:21:

.
9. NH ,
.
Nicely put. May I use that other other websites?
.

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