Yet Andy Burnham is about to punish them for the less than 2% who do
Using the official facts we show why the EU can hardly wait for the Summit next week
Exposed: The PM’s ‘economic growth’ claim is an excuse to cover his real ideological aims
Next week at the EU-UK Summit, Andy Burnham will risk the health of more than 98% of UK businesses for what he claims to be essential for growing the economy – shackling the country to a raft of prohibitive EU laws and regulations.
The analysis of the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, HMRC, and the Department for Business and Trade by Stand for Our Sovereignty, in collaboration with Brexit Facts4EU think-tank, and The Campaign for an Independent Britain (CIBUK.Org) proves that the PM’s numbers simply do not stack up. This report on the business numbers, the UK’s export in goods, and the value of EU trade to the UK economy has been shared exclusively with GB News. The results make grim reading for the Prime Minister.
Here is what the PM says about his ‘EU Reset Summit’
The Prime Minister claims that a week tomorrow he will sign up to the deals the EU wants because it is in the interest of growing the UK economy.
“What’s facing me… is a UK-EU summit where I have the opportunity to add to UK growth. It’s estimated up to 0.4% extra on GDP.”
“I think people in Britain would expect me to take that with both hands… if that can get growth, if that can help our farmers, if that can remove red tape from British businesses, I think most people would expect me to go to that summit and negotiate the best deal that I can.”
– The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, speaking to broadcasters, 06 Nov 2026
Here are the official facts for Mr Burnham
The problem for the Prime Minister is that when reviewing the detail of the UK’s business numbers and GDP, no rational person would say that shackling the UK to a whole variety of EU laws and regulations affecting the whole country will have any growth effect – except for the economies of EU27 countries.
Note: All data in this report is official and it relates to the export of goods. The vast bulk of the UK economy – services – are relatively unaffected by this deal.
1. UK business numbers
According to the Department for Business and Trade, this year (2026) there are 5,684,045 UK businesses of all sizes.
- Just 25,608 (0.45%) export goods exclusively to the EU
- This becomes 108,136 (1.9%) when including firms that export to the EU AND non-EU
- Only 126,029 (2.2%) of UK businesses export any goods at all
The uncomfortable truth for the PM
- 99.55% of UK businesses do not rely exclusively on EU goods exports
- 98.1% of all UK businesses do not export goods to the EU at all
Rt Hon Lord Redwood D.Phil FCSI, former Single Market Minister and former Secretary of State
commented exclusively to GB News, Stand for Our Sovereignty, and the Brexit Facts4EU think-tank
“The proposed EU reset will cut UK growth, not make us better off.
“Facts4EU point out that 98% of UK companies export nothing to the EU, yet many of them will be burdened by new EU laws and costs the UK will be made to impose under the EU Reset surrender deal.
“They remind the government that goods exports to the EU are under 6% of our GDP. The government is prepared to harm the 94% of our GDP that is not EU exports with higher costs, dearer energy, more rules, and higher taxes from Brussels.”
“How do they think this will increase our GDP? Why no forecast of the business closures and lost domestic investment and growth this will cause?”
2. 94% of UK GDP has nothing to do with goods exports to the EU
Next we look at just how much the UK’s export trade with the EU is worth.
The answer, unfortunately for the PM, is that 94% of UK GDP in 2025 is not derived from goods exports to the EU. This means he is focusing on a very small proportion of the UK economy at the expense of dealing with growing the economy as a whole.
Why is the PM ignoring the 96% of the economy which has nothing to do with EU goods exports?
- UK GDP 2025: £3,044.89 bn
- Goods exports to the EU: £181.9 bn
- Therefore goods exports to the EU accounted for only 5.97% of UK GDP
(Sources: ONS and HMRC)
BEFORE WE CONTINUE…
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3. How this deal will benefit EU27 economies, not the UK’s
Now we look at who will really benefit from the agreement to be signed by the Prime Minister in Brussels next week. Doing this is relatively simple.
TThe EU should be paying the UK, not the other way around
- EU goods exports to the UK 2025: £295.9bn
- UK goods exports to the EU: £181.9bn
- Balance: EU’s surplus in 2025 was £113.7bn (from unrounded figures)
(Sources: EU Commission (Eurostat) / ONS. Avg 2025 exchange rate: £1 = €1.1673 – ONS.)
The chart above shows how the EU’s trade in goods with the UK massively benefits the EU27 countries. Put simply, they sell us far more than we sell them.
The UK’s deficit in goods with the EU in 2025 was £113.7bn.
It is so obviously in the EU’s interests to hamper all of the UK’s businesses with prescriptive EU laws and regulations, as they naturally want to maximise sales to the UK. By holding innovative UK businesses back, and making cross-channel trade easier for their own exporters, they stand to grow their goods exports – and the UK’s deficit – still further.
This will have a large negative effect on UK GDP.
How does Andy Burnham justify shackling UK business to the EU’s laws?
The Prime Minister claims that “It’s estimated up to 0.4% extra on GDP” will result from him agreeing to what the EU wants at the Summit in Brussels a week tomorrow. This is merely an HM Treasury claim. It has not been published and cannot therefore be subjected to scrutiny.
The simple facts we have summarised above – all derived from the official statistics – show that in fact the party standing to gain most from the EU pulling the UK back under EU laws, rules, and regulations is the EU, not the United Kingdom.
The Rt Hon the Lord Redwood D.Phil FCSI gave us his final comments
“The government lives in a dream-world over the EU. Which goods do they think the EU will buy more of? Why are they running down farm output with grants to grow and rear less if they want us to export more? Why give away so much of our fish for foreign boats to catch?
“As Facts4EU remind us, the EU sells us so much more than we sell them. The government has overlooked the likelihood that EU changes will ensure their exports to us will go up more than our exports to them, which would decrease our GDP.”
“My time as Single Market Minister meant I had to resist or seek to amend many new laws and taxes that would have harmed UK businesses. Under Reset we would not even have a chance to see off the damage.”
Observations
Andy Burnham is planning to subjugate the UK to the EU once again, only 10 years after the definitive democratic decision of the British people to resume the status of the United Kingdom as a free, independent, and sovereign nation. He says he’s doing this for growth but the costs to UK business of all the EU’s legal constraints will outweigh any estimated benefits.
In one week’s time the UK is set once again to become a vassal state of the EU – with no mandate from the British people for the PM to do so. This is a gross abuse of power and must be called out as such.
Mr Burnham brazenly told a completely different story to the voters of Makerfield in order to get elected to Parliament. Once elected he returned to his Rejoiner agenda almost immediately. We are struggling to recall any Prime Minister in living memory who is guilty of such craven dishonesty.
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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.
[ Sources: ONS / DBT / HMRC / EU Commission (Eurostat) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.