Observations

On the relevance to Rachel Reeves and her budget

The Chancellor was one of those who not only campaigned for Remain, she was also amongst that shamefully-large group of MPs who refused to accept the result of the EU referendum, following the greatest democratic vote in British history. On her own crowdfunding web page - still live - she writes "I have voted and campaigned for a People’s Vote on Brexit, and for the UK to remain in the EU."

Given this, it only seems fair to present to Ms Reeves just how much worse the country's finances would have looked if she had been successful in her desire to remain in the EU. No doubt she would contest our figures but we have all the evidence from the EU's Court of Auditors which we would happily provide to her. Contrast this with her claim that she inherited "a £22bn black hole" in the UK's accounts. Despite repeated demands from MPs and others, neither she nor HM Treasury have been able to provide any evidence of this whatsoever.

What Rejoiners need to answer

There are of course wider implications of our report above, for all those who continue to campaign to rejoin the EU. They should face up to the fact that 'their' EU's costs have been going through the roof. At the same time, the ECA's reports clearly show that the EU Commission has proved unable to manage the expenditure of all this money in any kind of controlled manner.

Rejoiners should also take into account that the UK's contributions would be significantly higher than they were in previous years due partly to the fact that the UK's economy has been outperforming those of the major countries of the EU. Net contributions are a function of the economic size of a member country and the UK's percentage of the overall EU budgets would now be higher than the previous average of 12.5%. Rejoiners also need to explain why the British people should take on the liability for the EU's spiralling debts and liabilities.

The poor opinions from the auditors

Most company directors would be deeply unhappy with reports like this, if received from their own auditors. “Adverse” is particularly bad when it's for the fourth year running.

When it comes to the RRF, it is living on enormous amounts of borrowed money in order to keep it away from having to be declared in the EU’s standard annual budget. Previously the EU was never allowed to borrow money but as with so many aspects of the EU it seems that rules are there to be broken. And to receive a “qualified opinion” on a fund that has only been in existence for three years and which relies on investor confidence around the world to buy bonds in it is hardly a ringing endorsement.

For the avoidance of doubt, the auditors did NOT give the EU's accounts "a clean bill of health"
as the Commission claims. Quite the contrary.

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