6 Brexit Pledges That Are Already Dust Two Months After The EU Referendum

Yet again Nigel Farage is left fuming.
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Theresa May has dismissed one of the central points championed by the Leave campaign in the run up to the EU referendum, much to the chagrin of Nigel Farage.

The latest to fall centres around immigration but is far from the first pledge to be dropped in the aftermath of the vote.

Here’s a round up of what the public were promised but will not be getting...

1) A points-based immigration policy.

Farage repeatedly voiced his mantra that a points-based immigration policy such as that in place in Australia, would go someway to solving the migrant issue which became such an integral part of the debate around Brexit.

Just this Monday however, May dismissed the idea as it was not “not a silver bullet” to reduce the numbers coming to the UK.

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Nigel Farage was not particularly impressed with the latest news
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Farage, unsurprisingly was rather peeved, saying: “Given that myself and others also campaigned for a migration system that would treat all who wanted to come equally, any preference for EU nationals would be totally unacceptable

“If the establishment think they can stitch-up Brexit then they better be ready for the huge electoral consequences from a British public who on June 23rd voted for radical political change and now expect it to be delivered without failure.”

2) More money for the NHS.

Remember this?

The infamous Leave battle bus.

Almost immediately after hailing victory, Nigel Farage was forced to admit one of the central pledges of the Leave campaign simply wasn’t true.

They had said the weekly £350 million saving in EU contributions could be spent on the NHS instead, but confronted by Susanna Reid on ITV’s Good Morning, the former Ukip leader swiftly changed his tune.

When asked whether he could guarantee the bold pledge promoted on the side of a much-photographed battle bus would be delivered on, the Farage said: “No I can’t”, adding it was a “mistake”.

Reid said: “You’re saying, after 17m people have voted for Leave based - I don’t know how many people voted on the basis of that advert, but it was a huge part of the propaganda - you’re saying that was a mistake?”

The figure has been criticised repeatedly in the past for being “misleading”, included by the UK Statistics Authority.

3) Immigration.

For many of those intending to vote leave, immigration was the most important issue with an Independent poll in early June finding a third of voters more concerned with it than the economy.

Farage repeatedly raised it as a concern, drawing criticism for stoking up fears of terrorism and sex attacks.

He told The Sunday Telegraph before the vote: “The nuclear bomb this time would be about Cologne ... There are some very big cultural issues”.

When asked whether our EU membership boosted the risk of Cologne-style attacks, Farage told the paper: “It depends if they get EU passports. It depends if we vote for Brexit or not. It is an issue.”

On the Saturday morning following the EU referendum result, leading Brexit campaigner MEP Daniel Hannan was accused by Newsnight’s Evan Davis of peddling an immigration policy “completely at odds with what the public think they’ve just voted for” after Brexit. 

In an extraordinary exchange that at one point saw Davis put his head in his hands in despair, Hannan admitted the UK would still allow free movement of labour from Europe.

Davis said: “I’m sorry we’ve just been through three months of agony on the issue of immigration.

“The public have been led to believe that what they have voted for is an end to free movement.”

4) The Economy

On the eve of the referendum, Vote Leave announced:

After we Vote Leave, there won’t be a sudden change that disrupts the economy. The day after the referendum, nothing changes legally. We will talk to our friends in Europe and discuss the best way to agree a new UK-EU relationship.

Then this happened...

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The pound, pictured falling off a cliff
BLOOMBERG

The morning of the vote saw the pound plummet to a low not seen since 1985 with a loss of £122 billion to the FTSE 100.

Although there was a bounce-back of sorts, recent reports have painted a rather gloomy outlook ahead.

Last month it was revealed there could be another recession as UK economic activity fell to its lowest level since 2009.

On Monday Japan’s government announced it may move the head offices of the country’s firms out of Britain “if EU laws cease to be applicable in the UK”.

In a letter it said: “Japanese businesses with their European headquarters in the UK may decide to transfer their head-office function to Continental Europe if EU laws cease to be applicable in the UK after its withdrawal.”

As you can imagine, with the number of Japanese firms operating in Europe this would have a drastic effect.

5) Taking Our Country Back

The rather vague phrase popped up repeatedly throughout the campaign largely leave voters presumably reminiscing about a bygone era.

It has even spread Stateside.

Quite what it exactly means is still a bit of a mystery but one leave voter has gave us some idea...

But the tide appears to have turned since...

Bizarrely the people leading the Leave camp seemed in no hurry to “get their country back”.

Boris Johnson said shortly after the vote: “In voting to leave the EU it’s vital to stress that there’s no need for haste, and as the prime minister has just said nothing will change in the short term except work will begin on how to extricate this country from the supranational system.

“As the prime minister has said there is no need to invoke article 50.”

6) ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

To further complicate matters, just this week a group of MPs including Owen Smith is calling for a second EU referendum ahead of a Westminster debate on the petition backed by four million people

 Labour’s Geraint Davies told The Huffington Post UK people deserve a second say on EU membership as “once they find out what’s actually in the can isn’t actually what was printed on the tin, there’s going to be a lot of very unhappy people”. 

Judging by this tweet, people are getting very passionate about it.

So that’s six so far, stay tuned for an updated version soon perhaps...