The loosely-structured cross-party group campaigning for Brexit has tossed aside its previous pledge of devoting £350 million every week to Britain’s NHS.
Now they say that new funding should be found for farming, science, research and poor regions of the UK.
The Vote Leave campaign is in the process of reorganising itself into a new pressure group, Change Britain. Its aim is to “make a success of Britain’s departure from the EU, uniting people inside and outside politics to get the job done”.
The pledge of an extra £350 weekly for the health service was one of the clearest and most constant rallying cries in advance of the 23 June referendum.
No sooner had the nation been told that it was leaving the EU, many of the high-profile Brexiters denied ever making such a commitment. But a campaign bus which toured the nation had the message writ large on it, and newspapers and TV widely broadcast the images. Public figures spoke about it, and often, despite repeated challenges as to the accuracy of the figure.
The new group’s website has no mention at all of the NHS or even health care.
On its “Brexit means Brexit” page, it said one meaning of Brexit is to find new funding for specific areas.
“Identifying effective new funding formulas for agriculture, science, research and poorer regions and agreeing priorities for additional investment when the UK’s financial contribution to the EU budget ends.”
The website was taken down, but stored versions are accessible on some search engines.
The new campaign is headed up by Labour MP and pro-Brexiter Gisela Stuart and endorsed on Sunday by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
On Sunday, Stuart denied that people had been misled or that the pledge had been dropped, while admitting that only the government, not campaigners, had the authority to make such a commitment.
“For me, the priority was the NHS, but you need to be in government to actually implement that,” she told BBC1’s Andrew Marr show. “First of all we’ve got to leave, and then we can make the decisions. To me and to many of us the priority is the NHS.”
Former minister Anna Soubry, a pro-Remain Conservative MP, said it was outrageous that the Leave campaigners had “peddled that lie” during the campaign and were now quietly burying it.
“They should all hang their heads in shame. There were many people, particularly in less wealthy areas, who were convinced by Leave’s claim that if we left the EU we would be able to pour millions more into the NHS. The danger now is these people will become even more disillusioned with all politicians because this lot misled them.”
The Remain group frequently had to point out that the £350m a week sum is the gross amount before deducting the large amounts that come back in EU farm and other subsidies, including structural funds and education and research grants.
Prime Minister Theresa May said last weekend that she was unable to guarantee extra funds for the health service after Brexit.
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