Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are not the kind of men to ever admit they were wrong. That is despite all the evidence to the contrary – the trail of destruction left by their toxic ambition and misplaced convictions, the devastation to Britain’s economy caused by Brexit, which they championed as co-leaders of the Vote Leave campaign.
Therefore, both have chosen to write articles for the 10th anniversary of the referendum proclaiming they were right all along. And this leads to a remarkable series of hoops that both writers must jump through.
First, Johnson and Gove have to claim, preposterously, there has been little or no economic or other damage incurred by leaving the European Union. Second, that the “freedoms” only Brexit could give us have made us a super-successful country. Third, that just one more push will finally turn us into a global superpower.
All three claims are damaging, delusional and dangerous.
The evident economic damage of Brexit, which all reasonable analysts say is costing us between 6-8% of GDP? That is apparently just a lie, or best not mentioned. The closest Gove gets to admitting that anything bad might have happened is to claim “The hit has been taken. And now the gains can be realised. We are coming out of the dip in the Nike swoosh.”
Even that faux admission of guilt is not really an admission, because the calculations are being made by “the kind of experts from organisations with acronyms who have got things consistently wrong in the past.” It is “this country has had enough of experts” part deux.
Gove then goes on to claim that we have boomed outside the EU. He says our trade is higher, the City is a winner, agriculture and fisheries are much better off, we have triumphant new trade deals and the EU is trailing in our wake.
All of which he seems to have written without asking the opinion of a single farmer, fisherman, trade expert (sorry for triggering you, Michael), exporter, economist, inward investor or even the City of London. None of whom are likely to recognise his fantasy economic wonderland.
As for Johnson, he doesn’t much discuss the economic detail – apart from falsely claiming that Britain has made money by saving all those contributions to a corrupt EU. In reality, leaving the single market has cost us far more in lost growth and revenue.
Instead, he brags that his criminally inept handling of Covid was instead a Brexit triumph, because we developed a vaccine more quickly outside the EU. This has been proved to be a lie.
Johnson says this meant “we came out of lockdown measures about nine months faster than other European countries; and that meant we had the fastest economic rebound in the G7.” In fact, thanks to the partying prime minister, we had one of the worst hits from Covid, worse than France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and the USA. Those figures come from the OBR, an organisation with an acronym (again, sorry to trigger you, Michael).
Elsewhere, the disgraced former PM dreams about a world where there are no barriers to trade from Alaska to Athens, with mutual acceptance of each other’s products, totally tariff-free. This is exactly what the single market we left did across the whole of Europe and something Trumpian economics makes totally impossible (doesn’t he read the papers?).
Johnson and Gove also seem to both think that Brexit has allowed us to get a better deal with America; Gove even suggesting that we have negotiated a free trade deal with Trump already. We have not; we have a memorandum of understanding that either side can tear up at a moment’s notice.
It is not a free trade deal, evidenced by 10% tariffs on many of our exports to the USA; a rate Trump is trying to increase because of our refusal to deal with forced labour and modern slavery (seriously).
Still, I suppose the Brexit Kray Twins have to convince themselves of this stuff because the actual “winnings” from all that reclaimed freedom and democracy are thin on the ground.
They say we no longer have to implement the EU’s “diktats” – except we do if we want to sell to into their huge market, and our industry is very keen to do just that.
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They say we have now returned democracy to the UK, (it apparently did not exist here before Brexit), and this has allowed the people to tell us what they really want, and know that if it is not delivered, they can throw out their masters. How so very unlike our domestic political life before Brexit.
The fact that Brexit means a significant percentage of the population now thinks it is fine to riot, murder, set fire to migrant hotels and share happy emojis when babies drown in the English Channel, is apparently a good sign that democracy is coming home.
As Michael Gove puts it, “Brexit was a vote for a faster feedback loop between politicians and the people, the ability to yank the chain harder when ministers do not live up to their promises. That chain was yanked with great, cleansing, propulsive force in 2024 and I felt the spray.”
Perhaps Gove should have lowered the toilet seat first, then he and the country wouldn’t have been sprayed with quite so much faecal matter.
Finally, we have the unfinished business of Brexit.
For Johnson, this means more obscure “freedoms” to do things differently, which will somehow turn us into a dynamic world-leading economy. For Gove, it means just one final step: taking the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights. This is not even part of the EU, but Gove sees leaving it as an essential step if we are ever to totally regain our sovereignty. It seems Brexit did not cure the UK because it did not bleed the patient enough, more leeches are required.
If the UK withdrew from the ECHR, joining those forward-looking European nations Russia and Belarus, it would immediately mean the destruction of the Good Friday Agreement and therefore the end of the Windsor Framework that has kept Northern Ireland in the single market. Most importantly, the EU would have every right to tear up or suspend the Brexit deal signed by Boris Johnson, as membership of the ECHR is a non-negotiable commitment of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
So, an even harder “no deal Brexit”, far more damage, far more economic cost, no cooperation on law and order, or terrorism, tariffs and barriers to trade and untold problems in Northern Ireland.
All for what? Another huge portion of self-harming, painful, posturing politics, from yesterday’s people, which would turn the country into a pariah state.
We really have had enough from “experts” – the so-called “experts” named Gove and Johnson. The failed has-beens of Brexit.
This country listened to their advice once and will never get over the resulting damage. We can never afford to listen to them again.
Jonty Bloom is the author of A History of Brexit in 256 Disasters
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