“GB News readers and viewers, you were totally right!” says Boris
BREXIT REFERENDUM 10th ANNIVERSARY
Today we publish Part I of a 2-part Special for GB News by Brexit Facts4EU,
the Campaign for an Independent Britain, and Stand for Our Sovereignty
on the 10th Anniversary of the EU Referendum vote on 23rd June 2016
The former Prime Minister at the time, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson,
has an exclusive message for Facts4EU and GB News readers
“It was 10 years ago that the people of this country voted to leave the EU in the biggest-ever expression of support for any proposition or government in our democratic history.
“There were 17.4 million who voted Leave – including millions of readers and viewers of GB News.
“You were totally right!”
In this report we bring readers the background to the vote. Tomorrow – the anniversary of the result – we publish the shocking facts about what has happened since. In addition, 10 of the key players in the Brexit debate exclusively give GB News readers their thoughts. We have the exclusive comments of Nigel Farage, more from Boris, and more still from other household names who were in the thick of it. Not to be missed!
Whatever readers’ personal views, the vote to leave the EU was the biggest democratic decision of the British people in history.
No, we British haven’t changed our minds
“The UK’s long membership of the EU was a disaster.” So says Lord Redwood, the original EU Single Market Minister, as do millions of people across the country who haven’t come close to changing their minds about their vote to Leave, 10 years ago today in the EU Referendum of 2016.
Firstly, say the new report’s authors, when confronted with the real decision again, the UK would still vote to Leave. This is the conclusion from a YouGov poll this month, which showed only 27% of people would sacrifice UK sovereignty over their laws for access to the Single Market.
Poll question: “To what extent would you be prepared to accept fewer rule-making powers in exchange for greater access to EU single market?”
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2026 – click to enlarge
With the new realities and the much higher costs of joining again, many seasoned observers think it almost impossible for a ‘Rejoin’ campaign to be successful.
Exclusive comments to us on this major anniversary – The Rt Hon the Lord Redwood
“It is no wonder the public tell pollsters they do not want to sacrifice self-government again in the futile pursuit of more trade with the EU. The most priceless win from Brexit was the right to set our own taxes and laws. Most of us have no wish to go back to sending them most of our tariff revenue, plastics tax and share of our VAT, which would mean more tax rises at home.
“Nor do we want to have to accept their lower animal welfare standards, their higher tariffs on imports from non-EU countries, and the loss of our new trade deals with the TPP and India, faster growing parts of the world.”
How We Came To Leave
EU membership started in the 1970s with the ignominy of an IMF rescue under Labour. In the second decade Margaret Thatcher began a major debate after her iconic 1988 Bruges Speech on a federal Europe. Crucially her commitment to Sterling kept the Leave dream alive.
In the third decade John Major presided over the disastrous ERM fiasco and recession, followed by Tony Blair implementing the ‘Europe of the Regions’, with devolution and the rise of nationalist parties. Each EU integrationist treaty saw Britain an increasingly reluctant participant: Maastricht 1993, Nice 2001, Lisbon 2007.
Euroscepticism continued to grow after 2007 with the rise of UKIP. In response, David Cameron’s 2015 manifesto promised a referendum. After his victory he began a last-minute renegotiation with the EU in February 2016. It failed.
Referendum – Leave v Remain, the People vs the Establishment
The official campaign ran from 15 April – 23 June 2016. In broad terms this was seen as a revolt by provincial Britain versus the Metropolitan elites.
The ruling establishment was staunchly Remain including an overwhelming majority in Parliament, the judiciary, the mainstream media, the civil service, big business, the City, and global institutions.
‘Project Fear’: From Treasury reports and “Back of the queue”, to gonorrhoea and WWIII
It’s easy to forget today – 10 years on – the industrial-scale deception attempted on the British people by the Cameron and Osborne government.
This is best seen in a glossy, pro-EU, 16-page booklet (pictured right) produced in April 2016 costing millions and delivered through 30m doors in the UK.
HM Treasury: Immediate impact report (May 2016)
HMT produced two reports with the second showing the (imaginary) immediate recessionary impact of leaving the EU. Several weeks earlier they had published the long-term estimates, which are shown beneath this.
500,000 to 820,000 jobs lost.
Sterling would drop by 12%-15%.
GDP would contract by 3.6%-6% within 24 months.
The BBC liked this.
(Images: BBC coverage and subsequent Facts4EU facts chart)
HM Treasury: Long-Term Economic Impact (Apr 2016)
£4,300 was the headline figure for the annual cost per household of Leaving. Other official predictions included a 6.2% GDP reduction and a £36 billion public finance black hole. The loss in tax receipts would require public spending cuts or an equivalent 8% increase in basic income tax.
“…a vote to leave would mean Britain would be permanently poorer, to the tune of £4,300 a year for every household. Under any alternative, we’d trade less, do less business and receive less investment. And the price would be paid by British families. Wages would be lower and prices would be higher.”
George Osborne, then Chancellor
Here’s Lord Redwood again
“Our 47 years in the EEC/EU saw our growth rate halve, our fishing industry decimated, many of our orchards grubbed up and many of our factories closed as EU rules and taxes led us to more dependence on EU imports.
“We paid huge sums to the EU to pay for its bureaucracy and to send to other EU states. Our trade was always in heavy deficit with them as directives and regulations favoured their ways of doing things and their trade agreements did not help our service-led economy.”
These were strange days
We were on the receipt of unlikely claims such as Cameron’s threat of a plague of gonorrhoea and a suggestion of WWIII being more probable.
We saw the visit of US President Barack Obama telling the British public, (while standing beside a grinning British PM), that the UK would go to the “back of the queue” for a trade deal.
The Referendum Result
Despite it all, the result was a win for Leave by 52% to 48%.
Who can forget the Leave campaigner in Sunderland?
Or the reaction of David Dimbleby on the BBC when he had to announce the official forecast result?
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Taking off the rose-tinted specs – What EU membership really meant
Lord Redwood once more
“The EU turned our Parliament into a rubber stamp for their many laws and regulations. Successive governments signed up for ever more centralised EU government, losing our veto to stop many things that acted against our interests. People voted for change in elections but the EU prevented it.”
– The Rt Hon the Lord Redwood, speaking to Facts4EU and GB News, 22 Jun 2026
5 random facts about EU Membership
- The costs: By the time we left it was costing us £17bn a year just to belong. Despite a poor exit deal we are now saving the annual ‘contribution’.
- Freedom of Movement with the EU drove more than six million to emigrate to the UK. The EU also allowed the live export of animals for slaughter.
- After joining, car exports slumped from 300,000 to 130,000. Steel output fell from 28m to 18m tonnes over the first decade. Shipbuilding more than halved. Production of larger commercial planes ceased.
- Kitchen imports surged from 10% of the market to over 50%. UK cement output slumped from 20m to 8m tonnes and we now import 30% of our demand.
- We went from landing 1m tonnes of fish for us to eat in 1970 to 400,000 tonnes in 2020. We plunged from 700 trawlers to just 30 larger boats.
Immediate aftermath: Jun-Dec 2016
“This will not be an amicable divorce”
The tone for the ensuing years was set on the morning the result was declared, on 24th June 2016, by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. This came to define a vindictive and vitriolic side to the EU still evident to this day.
Despite his promises David Cameron fell on his sword, ushering in the unlikely form of Remainer Theresa May for her to proclaim “Brexit means Brexit” and “No deal is better than bad deal.”
In those years, senior Parliamentarians behaved like excited schoolchildren, huddling in little groups in the chamber, plotting and scheming to use obscure and arcane Erskine May rules to overturn the democratic vote.
Sir Keir Starmer was a leader of the People’s Vote – a strange concept which would have re-run the Referendum. MPs regularly briefed EU negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on how to damage the UK’s prospects further.
‘Meaningful votes’ and meaningless nonsense
Westminster’s introspection and self-importance grew in direct counter-point to the public’s indifference. Nothing was actually delivering Brexit but the media had plenty to write about.
These were the stalled, wasted years, during which the public’s patience grew thinner, eventually producing the Boris landslide of 2019.
Boris, Lord Frost, and the ‘oven-ready deal’
There had already been so many concessions under Mrs May and the desire to get the UK over the line and out of the EU was intense.
This somewhat overrode all else, which led to Northern Ireland being left behind, wrapped in a ‘Protocol’.
[Photo left: the Chief Negotiators for each side face off.]
At the end of January 2020 we were officially out, but it took a further 11 months until 01 Jan 2021 before the UK’s real independence could finally – and erroneously – be claimed.
And so to the big vote – “We’re out!”
Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the Referendum result being announced to a shocked nation. In the second part of this exclusive GB News Special Report, we will present a bright, positive, and optimistic assessment of the first 10 years – and the future. Once again this has been compiled by our associates at Brexit Facts4EU, The Campaign for an Independent Britain, and Stand for Our Sovereignty.
[ROGUES GALLERY OF 10 MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS]
In addition to being a celebration for those who are pro-Brexit, it features a devastating assessment of the Government’s Rejoin narrative, with five charts which definitively debunk the myths suggesting Brexit has caused massive damage. The report also includes the comments of many of the household names involved in Brexit over the last 10 years and is not to be missed!
Observations
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Please support our work
If more patriotic members of the public donate, we will keep going.
Please donate today to our research partner, Facts4eu, if you would like to continue reading us tomorrow, next week, and the weeks after.