Boris Johnson lied to an audience claiming the UK had the fastest vaccine rollout because of Brexit [2 mins]
12/04/2024
2024: Boris Johnson says the UK had the fastest vaccine rollout because we left the EU / 2020: Dr June Raine (then CEO of the MHRA speaking at a Downing Street briefing) says the UK approved the vaccine rollout while under EU rules
With levels of Euroscepticism in Britain unabating and daily press declarations that the EU has banned everything from the Queen on our passports to old-fashioned tea rooms, is it time to question how much of this EU reporting is actually true?
A slow metric transition in Britain has led to widespread myths about metrication in the UK. Unfortunately, many (but certainly not all) anti-EU campaigners have also opposed metrication and have spread myths about metrication to attack Britain’s participation in the EU.
The Brexit self-punishment machine
05/01/2024
It’s tempting to ignore the government’s announcement, made in the doldrums between Christmas and the New Year, that it is to become legal to sell wine and champagne in pint bottles.
The home secretary is wrong, the decision not to deport an illegal immigrant had nothing to do with the pet cat.
We could find no evidence that this has ever been successfully put forward as a reason for an asylum seeker to be granted the right to remain in the UK. A similar claim made in 2011 by Theresa May was widely debunked at the time.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has claimed Brexit allowed the UK to approve a Covid vaccine more quickly than other European Union (EU) countries.
Brexit anticipated - What fiction tells us about Britain’s relations to the European Union
19/07/2023
Lisa Bischoff analyses Eurosceptic novels published by British authors long before Brexit.
The 10 biggest lies of Brexit
21/06/2023
Seven years since the referendum, how have the “promises” made by the most prominent Brexiteers panned out? Here’s a rundown of the 10 most spectacular untruths.
David Davis suggested the turn in fortunes could be because the UK media have stopped “kicking Brussels all the time”.
Brussels confronts ‘EU budget myths’
07/07/2011
Just days before unveiling long-awaited proposals for the EU's budget until 2020, the European Commission has published a collection of facts on how Europe is financed, in a move apparently aimed at countering stereotypes conveyed by the Eurosceptic British press that it is over-sized and unaccountable.
Not true. There is a persistent myth (reliably recycled every year by UK newspapers) that the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU’s accounts, but this is false.
Claim: The European Union is so corrupt that the European Court of Auditors has not signed off its accounts for 20 years. / Reality Check verdict: The Court of Auditors has signed the EU accounts every year since 2007...
While passport validity rules and individual immigration requirements do exist, there is a lot of bad information out there. Simon Calder busts the top 10 myths you’ll find on the internet.
Over the years since Brexit was first talked of, its proponents have developed numerous convoluted and often contradictory myths.
"The law that P&O are allegedly relying on was introduced as a result of EU directives..." Ireland & Spain banned fire & rehire. Both are in the EU.
23/03/2022
"The law that P&O are allegedly relying on was introduced as a result of EU directives... He [Starmer] would have kept us unable to change it... He would have made it impossible to protect UK employees" (Johnson). / Ireland & Spain banned fire & rehire. Both are in the EU.
Did the EU ban crown marks on pint glasses?
05/01/2022
To mark the first anniversary of the trade deal between the UK and the EU, Downing Street issued a press release about how prime minister Boris Johnson plans to "maximise the benefits of Brexit".
Claims by Boris Johnson that regulations imposed by “Brussels bureaucrats” were damaging the trade in kippers have been debunked by the European commission, which said that the food safety obligations criticised by him were due to rules set by Britain.
The Brexit Benefit Myths
29/10/2021
The government and its supporters are beginning to claim 'benefits' of being outside the European Union some of which were always available to EU member states or, in other cases, are not benefits at all.
The image of empty shelves is being incorrectly linked to Brexit. Carrefour's supply chain has been hit amid a strike at its logistics provider.
Return of imperial system on cards for Brexit Britain – measurements have always been political
21/09/2021
Some in government would now like to see Britain’s imperial measurements make a comeback. As part of a review on EU laws still in place after Brexit, the government plans to remove a ban on selling goods using only imperial units.