Watchdog reprimands Tories over £800bn post-Brexit trade deals claim

[pellinore]

The reality, of course, is that the UK is doing less trade with the world excluding the EU since Brexit, about 15% less, or £100 billion per year less trade in total:

The official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the Conservatives for claiming the UK had secured £800bn in “new free trade deals” since leaving the EU, saying the figure includes deals rolled over from before Brexit.

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said it had written to the Tories about the infographic, shared last month by Michael Gove among others, also warning that the party should provide sources for such figures in the future.

The Scottish National party’s trade spokesperson, Drew Hendry, wrote to the UKSA about Gove’s use of the Tory graphic, which said: “We’ve secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016. That’s over £800bn worth of new free trade.”

In a response, the UKSA’s chair, Sir Robert Chote, said that while no citation or source was provided, he assumed the £800bn total came from the £559bn in net trade with EU countries in 2021, plus the £245bn in post-2016 deals with 71 non-EU nations, some of which had also been a rollover of the pre-Brexit deals with the wider EU.

Watchdog reprimands Tories over £800bn post-Brexit trade deals claim | Brexit | The Guardian

Edited December 12, 2022 by pellinore

[Ozymandias]

I'm sorry, but when are the British people going to wake up and stop being so bloody stupid and gullible.