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Billions Lost to Brexit Could Fund NHS, Top Economist Says
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In Short: An exclusive interview with a top economist suggests that billions lost due to Brexit could have funded the NHS, challenging previous claims made by the Leave campaign.
Nick Bloom, a professor at Stanford University, told The Independent that up to 8 per cent of the UK's GDP was lost due to Brexit, a figure that is more than previously thought. Bloom, who is the co-author of research indicating this economic impact, explained that the loss was due to both the direct impact of Brexit and the uncertainty it created, which led businesses to pause investment and hiring.
He elaborated, saying, "Brexit itself was just bad news, because it makes it harder for British firms to trade with Europe, and Europe's about half of our trade pre-Brexit." The other half of the lost GDP, according to Bloom, was due to the prolonged and messy process of approving the final Brexit deal, which left businesses uncertain and hesitant to act.
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- He said infamous claims made by the Leave campaign that Brexit could free up £350m a week to spend on the NHS, in a controversial slogan emblazoned across the side of a battle bus, were “exactly and perfectly wrong”.
- “So the vote happened in 2016, but it took several years of back and forwards, and multiple prime ministers, and votes, and re-votes, and haggles, negotiations. And so businesses over this period were left uncertain and paused on investment, paused on hiring, and finally we have Brexit done,” he said.
- Former Tory health secretary Stephen Dorrell said the suggestion that Brexit would unlock more funds for the NHS was “fundamentally dishonest on a Trumpian scale” and said leaving the EU had “undermined the ability of the UK economy to create successful business and create wealth”.
- Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, which campaigns for the UK’s restored EU membership, said Brexit had resulted in a “slow and painful death by 1,000 cuts for the UK economy, and the knock-on effect to our struggling public services, with experts like Nick Bloom now rightly highlighting the appalling damage to our healthcare”.
- Hospitals would be refurbished, you'd have better paid doctors, better paid nurses, better equipment… So one way to look at it is all the money we've lost.
- If we hadn't lost it, we could have spent it on the NHS.
- Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said that “patients in the NHS are paying the price with record waiting lists, crumbling hospitals, and overworked doctors and nurses... It’s time for the government to stop burying its head in the sand”.
- If we hadn’t lost it, we could have spent it on the NHS.
Sources
- The Independentlink