The widely derided figure of saving £350 million a week by leaving the EU was always an exaggeration. But even the net figure of perhaps £120m per week needs to put into perspective in two ways.
Firstly, as Paul Johnson of the IFS said yesterday, the British government lost many years (not weeks!) of EU contributions by the amount the share prices of RBS and Lloyds, banks part owned by the taxpayer, fell during yesterday's market mayhem alone! In other words the £350m a week is actually more like a rounding error in the public finances.
Secondly, speaking on radio 4 yesterday, a German MP, close to Mrs Merkel said we would not be given tariff free access to the single market unless we contributed to the budget as Norway does and because we wouldn't get the rebate, the amount we pay would actually go UP. No country has tariff free access to the market as Boris was suggesting without contributing.
So, there we have it the £350m a week saving may end up costing us money. Money that may end up coming OUT of the NHS rather than going in. How Boris would spin that will be interesting.
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