Eye-opening new report issues direct challenge to Andy Burnham
Wannabe PM in embarrassing new “left with nowhere to go” test
“Prime Minister, please explain how Brexit has caused ‘economic damage’,
because that’s not what the official ONS figures show”
Prospective Prime Minister Andy Burnham MP is now starting to feel the pressure of real scrutiny. Our new report and challenge for Mr Burnham adds to this. It concerns the largest democratic decision made by the British people in over 50 years.
As most people know, Andy Burnham is a man who has ‘admitted’ that he would like the UK to rejoin the EU, almost as though this were a guilty secret. For anyone listening to Mr Burnham over the years, however, this was never a question, even if his response was framed as a confession.
More challengingly, Mr Burnham has now been asked a different question by us – Stand for Our Sovereignty with support from our associates – the think-tank Brexit Facts4EU, The Campaign for an Independent Britain. We have shared this exclusively with GB News who are running the piece today.
“Mr Burnham, as Prime Minister, will you accept the official economic facts,
showing you and your predecessor are wrong about Brexit?”
Here is Andy Burnham at the Labour Party Conference in September last year (2025)
“Then you come to Brexit and I think what happened from the 80s through the 90s is that although structurally we were in the wrong place, the growth that we had through the European Union in some ways masked some of those structural problems, but the minute you come to Brexit, then look at the last decade that we’ve had, everybody? I think we absolutely should [‘call out the disaster Brexit has been’ – from the questioner] because we’ve been stuck now with sluggish growth.”
“I’m going to be honest. I’m going to say it. I would I want to rejoin. I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin the European Union. I’m absolutely clear about that… The European Union benefited this country.”
– Andy Burnham MP, courtesy Guardian podcast, Labour Party Conference, 29 Oct 2025
“Brexit did deep damage to our economy.”
– The current Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, 01 April 2026
Whether people voted Leave or Remain, they have the right to know the truth about the UK economy since the EU Referendum.
Richard Tice MP, Deputy Leader, Reform UK
commented exclusively to GB News and Facts4EU
“We’ve had no say in the choice of a new Prime Minister who will be foisted on us in a matter of days. With no democratic legitimacy this is bad enough, but on top of this we have no idea what he really stands for.
“What this report makes starkly clear, however, are his views on Brexit. The report’s challenge to Andy Burnham is equally clear. Does he know any facts about it at all, or is he just trotting out the same old Labour ideology of ‘Brexit bad, EU good’?
“These five charts from Facts4EU and GB News give us all the facts. Brexit has not caused an economic collapse as Burnham and his prophets of doom threatened. Our economy has grown significantly since the Referendum in every way. Will he now admit this, faced with the incontrovertible truth in this report?”
We invite Mr Burnham to face the official facts of how well Brexit has done in the last 10 years
Stand for Our Sovereignty and our co-authors have prepared a devastating suite of five charts which we are publishing below. These use the official data from the Office for National Statistics, and show beyond all doubt that:
Brexit has NOT done “deep damage to the economy”
Brexit Britain’s GDP has outgrown the EU’s Top 3 economies since the EU Referendum
rising over twice as fast as Germany
The Stand for Our Sovereignty “Boxed-In Set”
Five charts leaving our new PM with nowhere to go except to embrace honesty
1. The economy has grown in real terms
Despite what you may have been told, UK GDP has grown (in real terms) since the Referendum, not fallen. The prevailing narrative from the Government and Rejoiner organisations of “Brexit has caused a 4% / 8% drop in GDP” – (pick a number) – simply isn’t true, based on the official statistics.
The public has been grossly misled, as this chart shows. Far from a 4-8% fall, there has been a 12.9% rise.
The UK growth rate, after excluding the effects of inflation, is double that of the EU’s economic powerhouse, Germany.
2. What’s more, GDP per head – again in real terms – has also grown
Below is another crucial fact Mr Burnham may not be aware of, using the latest figures from the ONS which (in this case only) run up until end-2024.
3. Jobs are up by a dramatic 2.4 million
Despite the efects of the Covid lockdown culture and the ‘benefits generation’, the number of people in work at the end of 2025 was 2.4 million higher than at the time of the Referendum.
Contrast with Project Fear
Remember the apocalyptic threats of Chancellor George Osborne, telling us that up to 820,000 jobs would be lost “as an immediate consequence” of voting Leave?
The reality is that the opposite happened – and this has continued.
Photo right: George Osborne, as Chancellor
4. But, but… Exports? Haven’t they fallen off a cliff?
No, in fact the UK’s World exports of goods and services are even higher in real terms now than at the time of the Referendum. The UK exported 17.6% more at the end of last year than in June 2016, when we went to the polls.
Far from becoming ‘Little Britain’, the UK is now exporting far more around the World. With the effects of new trade deals with some of the World’s fastest-growing economies beginning to impact, this is expected to grow further. These deals were not possible while the UK was a member of the EU.
5. Finally, what about businesses investing for the future?
Once again, the apocalyptic myths about Brexit are shown to be just that. Using the official figures from the ONS, the final chart shows that businesses continue to invest in Brexit Britain, at a rate nearly 17% higher than in the 12-month period before the EU Referendum.
Business investment stayed broadly flat after the Referendum and then has risen following the Covid period and exit.
Lord (John) Redwood, former Single Market Minister and Secretary of State,
commented exclusively to GB News, Stand for our Sovereignty and Facts4EU
“Andy Burnham has flip-flopped over WASPI women, fiscal rules, social housing targets in Manchester, over being Mayor, and much else before he has even become PM.
“His most dangerous U-turn could be over the EU. He has always wanted the UK to rejoin and has wrongly claimed Brexit did harm. Yet he promised his Makerfield constituents he would not try to take us back in. Will he keep his word? Will he really apply a Makerfield test to an EU Re-Set? The people of Makerfield will tell him giving away our law-making powers and more of our money to the EU in a hopeless attempt to win friendship is a bad idea.
“I bet he ignores them once he is snug in Downing Street. Expect betrayal of their good sense to vote Leave.”
These five definitive charts above show that
since the EU Referendum, in real terms:
- The economy continues to grow, and has outperformed the EU’s largest
- GDP per head of population has risen
- Far more people are in work
- Our exports are up significantly
- And businesses are investing for the future at a higher rate
Decisively right? Or decisively wrong?
One of the factors involved in Sir Keir Starmer’s downfall was the public’s perception of his indecisiveness in office. This was informed by the extraordinary number of public U-turns he made on major policy matters during his premiership. There is no question that the public wants a decisive leader.
Decisions have to be made based on the available information. In Mr Burnham’s case, he will have access to all the State’s resources. Economic data in particular is provided by the ONS.
Not unreasonably, we are asking the prospective PM whether he accepts the official economic facts about the Brexit economy. If so, he must disassociate himself from his predecessor’s statements on Brexit – and his own.
The above facts pose awkward questions for all those making unsupported claims, from the current Prime Minister and his Cabinet to MPs from Labour, the SNP, the LibDems, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.
Lord (John) Redwood, former Single Market Minister and Secretary of State,
commented exclusively to GB News, Stand for our Sovereignty and Facts4EU
“Once again Facts4EU have pulled off a great coup, setting out brilliantly how there has been no economic damage from Brexit.
“Project Fear in the Referendum got it all wrong. They predicted rising unemployment, but it fell. They predicted falling GDP but it rose. They predicted less trade, but it surged. Out of the EU the UK has saved the billions written on the side of the campaign bus.
“We have negotiated trade agreements with India and TPP which the EU did not do. We have seen a big increase in service sector exports which the EU never assisted or promoted. We have regained our seat and vote on the World Trade Organisation and have taken EU tariffs off many of our global imports.
The UK can benefit much more from using our new freedoms to choose our own laws and set our own taxes.”
Spotlight on Andy Burnham starting now
Importantly, the questions we have set out are ones which the presumptive incoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, will have to face. To make life more interesting for Mr Burnham, we have stipulated conditions.
- He must only reply using official facts, not guesswork in the form of ‘economists’ forecasts’
- He must not divert onto other facts but address solely the basic ones above
- He must not cherry-pick. For example, chart 4 refers to the UK’s total World exports of goods and services. Mr Burnham must not try to talk about only part of this, for example “goods exports to the EU”. We could equally well talk about exports of services, which have risen even more dramatically.
Most of the public only have time for the overall figure, e.g. “Are our exports up or down since we voted, Mr Burnham?”
The final question is the most challenging
“Given that all the basic, overall measures are positive, Mr Burnham,
how can you say Brexit has caused any economic damage?”
Brexit Facts4EU has approached the MP for Makerfield for comment.
Observations
The great Brexit myth refuses to die
For a decade the British public have been subjected to a relentless campaign designed to convince them that Brexit would be or has been an economic failure. We have been told that Brexit has “damaged the economy”. Since we left we have been told that Britain is poorer. We have been told that jobs would disappear, investment would dry up and trade would collapse.
Yet the official statistics tell a very different story. As the charts above demonstrate, the UK economy is larger than it was at the time of the Referendum. GDP per head has risen. Employment has risen by 2.4 million. Exports are substantially higher. Businesses are investing more than before.
These are not opinions. They are not forecasts. They are not economic theories. They are the official recorded outcomes.
And yet many politicians continue to repeat claims of Brexit-induced economic decline as though repeating them often enough somehow transforms them into facts. The public deserve better.
If Andy Burnham wishes to become Prime Minister, he should explain precisely how Brexit has caused the economic damage he alleges. Not by quoting economists’ models. Not by pointing to hypothetical alternative futures. Not by changing the subject.
He should explain how his claims can possibly be reconciled with the official figures published by the Office for National Statistics.
Because at some point those who have spent years talking Britain down must confront an uncomfortable reality :
The economic collapse they predicted never happened.
The question for Andy Burnham
The figures presented in this report leave advocates of the “Brexit disaster” narrative facing a simple problem. The official data do not support their claims.
That does not mean every problem facing Britain has been solved. It does not mean every Brexit opportunity has been fully seized. Far from it. What it does mean is that one of the most persistent political narratives of the last decade is increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of the evidence.
Politicians are entitled to argue for rejoining the European Union if they wish. What they are not entitled to do is pretend that the official economic record says something that it does not.
The facts are there for everyone to see.
The question is whether Andy Burnham is prepared to acknowledge them.
Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today to our research-engine: Facts4EU.Org or becoming a Member of Stand for Our Sovereignty. Thank you.
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.
