Leaving the European Union will save the United Kingdom £13bn in Brussels budget contributions by 2020 - or £250m a week - according to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
The figure is £100m less than the £350m a week Vote Leave campaign famously claimed the UK would save, and be able to spend on the NHS, if people voted for Brexit.
However the OBR also said today that, overall, Brexit has cost the UK £58.7bn - or £226m a week until 2020/2021 - wiping out any savings made from not having to pay into the EU’s budget.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who vigorously campaign for a ‘Remain’ vote, said the government had “casually betrayed the wishes of millions of British voters” by failing to spend any money on the NHS.
“Senior ministers like Boris Johnson and Liam Fox promised to spend £350 million a week more on the NHS. Today in the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor had the opportunity to keep that promise. He failed to do so,” he said.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told the Commons Brexit was “the greatest economic challenge of a generation” and the government was “unprepared and ill-equipped” to deal with it.
“The chancellor must now do the right thing for British workers and businesses. He must insist on full, tariff-free access to the single market. He and the Treasury know that’s what will give the best deal for jobs and prosperity here. It may not be in the chancellor’s nature, but in the national interest I urge him to stand up to the prime minister and the extreme Brexit fanatics in her cabinet,” he said.