Michael Gove struck a cheery note in a recent article for the Spectator, analysing the impact of Brexit 10 years on. Once again choosing to sneer at the “experts from organisations with acronyms” who warned of the economic damage leaving the EU would cause, Gove went on to outline what a jolly good thing Brexit had been. Among other benefits, he declared “The City is flourishing”, we “have a decisive edge in AI ” and “Britain is growing at least as fast as our major European partners”.
The news that the UK is not teetering on the end of financial Armageddon and is actually doing reasonably well will likely come as a surprise to many Spectator readers. The magazine has spent much of the last 18 months churning out economic doom-and-gloom stories.
A selection of recent headlines include “Britain’s economy is growing, but not for long’” (April 16, 2026), “Inflation is down, but for how long?” (Feb 18 ), “Is there a silver lining in Britain’s dismal growth figures?” (Feb 12), “Rachel Reeves; Destroyer of Jobs” (Jan 20), “Britain’s economy is standing still under Labour” (Jan 15), “How Rachel Reeves shrank the economy” (Dec 12, 2025), “Rachel Reeves is dragging Britain into a productivity doom loop” (Nov 11), “Britain’s Doom Loop continues” (Oct 21, 2025), “Rachel Reeves couldn’t be prouder of crippling the economy” (Aug 3, 2025), “Britain is broke” (Jul 22, 2025), “Why is Britain’s economy so unhealthy?” (June 14, 2025), “Why Britain’s economy doesn’t work” (Jan 18, 2025), and “The UK economy is in a rut” (Jan 16).
Eagle-eyed readers may notice a certain trend to these headlines – namely a focus on how Labour has wrecked the economy.
It would, of course, be entirely wrong to suggest that a man of such deep integrity as Michael Gove and a magazine as reputable as the Spectator would cherry-pick data to allow them to both simultaneously trash Labour’s economic record while defending the benefits of the disastrous Brexit policy they pushed so hard for.
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