How the UK is wiping the floor with Sir Keir’s friends in Brussels, Paris & Berlin

If Rachel Reeves thinks she inherited “a black hole”, she should take a look across the Channel

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

On economic growth, on inflation, and on unemployment, the UK still comes out on top of the EU

In just over a month’s time the new Chancellor of the Exchequer will stand before the despatch box in the House of Commons to deliver her first budget. The public already knows the news will be miserable, because she and the Prime Minister have not stopped warning anyone who will listen to expect the worst. In today’s report we ask how much worse her budget measures would be if she were the Chancellor of the EU.

The simple fact is that the UK continues to outperform the EU by a significant margin – on GDP growth, on inflation, and on unemployment. Facts4EU.Org presents the latest figures and compares the United Kingdom with the EU. These are the three key measures used by Eurostat – the EU Commission’s statistics agency – on its homepage.

There are hundreds of other measures used by economists, many of which are of little interest to the general public. The ones which almost everyone understands are :-

By how much are consumer prices increasing? (CPI inflation rate)
How much is our country’s economy growing? (GDP growth rate)
How many of our people are out of a job? (Unemployment rate)

So why are Sir Keir and the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves talking down the UK?

Here is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer making her first speech at the Treasury, on 08 July 2024.

The Chancellor’s first speech and she begins with a gross falsehood

Within 90 seconds of starting her speech, the Chancellor uttered an extraordinary statement.

“Whoever won the election would inherit the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War.”

We regret to say this is not just political hyperbole, it is a gross falsehood as any competent Chancellor with a knowledge of economic history would know. It isn’t even close to the facts and is thoroughly misleading to the British people. The Chancellor went on.

“All governments face difficult decisions… Those decisions are made harder, however, by the absence of economic growth necessary not only to balance the books but also to improve living standards…. Growth requires hard choices. Choices that previous governments have shied away from. And it now falls to this new Labour government to fix the foundations.”

As we show below, the latest sets of figures for economic growth show the UK leading the rest of Europe. And with inflation at or close to the Bank of England’s target of 2% for four months running, and the unemployment rate in the EU 46% higher than the UK’s, the ‘foundations’ that Ms Reeves inherited would not appear to be as bad as she suggests.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The United Kingdom versus the European Union – The UK wins easily

Comparing the EU’s three key measures to those of the UK, latest official figures, 2024

1. Inflation (CPI), August 2024

UK : 2.4%
EU : 2.6%

[Sources : ONS and EU Commission (Eurostat).]

2. GDP growth rate Q2 2024 (latest data)

UK : 0.6%
EU : 0.2%

[Sources : ONS and EU Commission (Eurostat).]

3. Unemployment rate, July 2024 (latest data)

UK : 4.1%
EU : 6.0%

[Sources : ONS and EU Commission (Eurostat).]

In Q2 this year the UK’s economic growth beat the EU, France, Germany and the G7 average

Next we turn to international comparisons. The chart below clearly shows how once again, (as for Q1), the UK has been leading the way amongst the major economies in Europe when it comes to growth. The latest economic figures are for Q2 (Apr-Jun 2024).

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The international comparison - GDP growth, Q2 2024

The UK beat the EU average, Germany, France, and the OECD and G7 averages

UK : 0.6%
G7 : 0.5%
OECD : 0.5%
EU : 0.2%
France : 0.2%
Germany : -0.1%

[Sources : OECD | ONS | House of Commons Library 25 Sept 2024.]

Finally, we would ask readers if they remember watching or reading the above news from any BBC reports?

Observations

Labour seemingly entered office determined to do three things

Use the word ‘change’ as often as possible
Discover ‘a black hole’ in the national accounts (the same accounts they have had access to for years)
Blame the previous government for leaving them with the ‘black hole”, so that Labour's tax rises are not Labour’s fault

In our report above we have blown the lid off the Chancellor’s budget misery to show how Brexit Britain continues to lead the EU.

As all readers know, key economic results can vary a great deal from month to month and quarter to quarter. That said, if we don’t celebrate when the results are good, when will we? The simple facts are that according to the latest official figures, the UK is outperforming the EU by some considerable margin.

Regarding Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer, over and over again since the election we have heard them talk about the British economy being the worst they could have inherited. Not only is this categorically and demonstrably untrue it does the country no service whatsoever, when these speech sound-bites are beamed to the domestic audience and around the world.

The Labour Leader and his Chancellor are no longer in Opposition, they are now in Government. What they say impacts the consumer confidence at home and the markets around the world. We sincerely hope they learn this lesson very quickly, or they will talk down our international standing and risk significantly damaging the UK economy.

NOTICE : Facts4EU is now scaling back to publishing 5 days-a-week

For over eight years we have worked seven days-a-week. As far as we are aware we are the only organisation of our type to have done this. We are grateful to those of our readers who have made donations but sadly the level of our funding is now such that we must make it stretch for as long as we can. This means team members taking other paid work and reducing our output to five days-a-week.

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

[ Sources: ONS | EU Commission | OECD | House of Commons Library ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 27 Sept 2024

Click here to go to our news headlines

Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget actually to post your message after you have previewed it!

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 28

1. terence patrick hewett , Friday, September 27, 2024, 08:31:

What Starmer et al do not appear to realise, is that the advent of intertubes has rendered the Goebbels playbook ineffectual. The Goebbels book depends upon complete dominance of the media: completely impossible outside of North Korea and China. Starmer's Labour Party think that the nostrums of 20th century propaganda are still effective: only Reform UK have mastered 21st century media.

2. terence patrick hewett , Friday, September 27, 2024, 10:07:

Of course the Chancellor’s first speech began with a "gross falsehood." It's classic propaganda perfected in 1930's Germany, to quote the biggest lie first and then repeat it ad infinitum. Except of course, that it no longer works in the age of the intertubes.

3. Parky , Friday, September 27, 2024, 11:07:

2 days ago The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, in an interview at the Labour Party Conference said, "We were elected because we are trusted on the economy"
Another "gross falsehood" surely.
I started to understand a bit more about where they are getting their ideas when I read "The Great Reset" on the WEF website and the OECD UK 2024 summary to realise they are taking their cues from above - I think it might be why most people in the real world are a bit baffled at the moment.

4. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, September 27, 2024, 13:38:

Great to see Brexit Britain wiping the floor with the EU. And more evidence that Brexit is working: UK export to EU has dropped by 27% and UK import from the EU has dropped by 32% between 2021 and 2023.

5. Gazzablack , Friday, September 27, 2024, 16:06:

4, LB
No LB they haven't

6. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, September 27, 2024, 17:01:

5 Gazza … I was referring to the export/import of goods (customer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods) to and from the EU … not including services!

7. Gazzablack , Friday, September 27, 2024, 17:09:

6, LB
So was I

8. LuxuryBalloon , Friday, September 27, 2024, 17:17:

7 Gaza … I was reading an interesting study from the non-partisan Aston University: ‘The significant decline in customer goods export to the EU and corresponding UK imports suggest a disentanglement of the UK from the EU value chains, with a shift towards local production’ … music to our ears, not?

9. NH , Friday, September 27, 2024, 18:53:

8. LB, "non-partisan Aston University"
By it's own admission Aston University has a large number of EU staff and students and this reports appears to have been written by Chinese Nationals.
.
The report is ridiculous ! It's titled " UK Trade post Brexit" but them immediately ignores most of our trade, and our most valuable trade, by ignoring services without any explanation. It then goes on to highlight goods that we have never manufactured in the first place (Textiles, Footwear, Hides) stating that the supply chains are being broken. The reality is these products were always manufactured in Asia or elsewhere and shipped to the UK before being exported to the EU. After Brexit these were shipped directly to the EU so official exports numbers declined but it did not hurt UK businesses. How can supply chains have been broken when the UK function was design and marketing and we were never part of the goods supply chain ?
.
The report ignores data from both the ONS and the EU. The reports seems to be trying to confuse people by presenting a whole range of mathematical equations which are irrelevant to understanding trade flows. However I am sure some people will happily believe any rubbish that supports their desires.

10. Gazzablack , Friday, September 27, 2024, 19:35:

8, LB
.
Apparent reductions in trade are a result of the 'Rules of origin' in the TCA.
.
The same quantities are traded, but are no longer recorded as UK to EU or EU to UK exports

28 comments, page 1 of 3

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.