We have to deal with sad reality of EU exit

RECENTLY, people are asking why there seem to be no Brexit benefits, and why the Brexiteers are not even pretending there are any more.

Perhaps the most stark illustration of this is the new Health and Social Care Bill which increases National Insurance to provide necessary funding for the NHS and care services. This is £12 billion a year, that’s £230 million a week, raised through increased taxation.

Have we all forgotten that, before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Johnson drove around the country in a bus claiming very specifically that leaving the EU would mean an extra £350 million a week for the NHS. Do his supporters have no memory?

We have a tiny handful of trade deals to replace the 128 we lost. Predictions of empty shelves, a crumbling Northern Ireland peace process, declining trade and international relations, were labelled as ‘Project Fear’. It doesn’t sound so far-fetched now, and what have we got to show for it?

Brexiteers offer no explanation, except “we won, get over it”. I know they won, I feel it every day with real consequences. If a couple of per cent of the population more had voted Remain, it would be behind us, but it isn’t. This is real and we have to deal with it.

So where is the money? Why is the NHS still struggling? If Boris was telling the truth, it should be fixed already, with £120 million a week left over. Brexiteers have got the hardest of all possible Brexits, every “cost” we anticipated is real. Were we lied to all along about the benefits? Where is the money, Mr Johnson?

Andy Swain

Exeter