Are Remain & Leave equally misleading?

[arganoid]

My letter to the Newmarket News, May 2016:

There are many aspects of the EU debate which are shrouded in confusion. For example, the Remain campaign has been criticised for saying that the average household could be £4300 worse off under Brexit, but that figure actually applies to GDP per household which is not the same thing. It should also be noted that this strangely precise figure is the midpoint of a range of estimates – the real effects could be better or worse. Rather than try to explain the details behind this figure, the Remain campaign have repeatedly pushed the dumbed-down version of it, damaging their credibility. However, this pales in comparison to the Leave campaign’s greatest distortion – the claim that we send £350m to the EU per week, and that this money could be spent differently after Brexit. Even if we ignore the money the EU spends in the UK, this figure ignores the rebate (£5bn per year), which is deducted before the UK’s contribution is sent – in other words, the rebate never leaves the country, and therefore would not be extra money available to spend in the event of Brexit, rendering the £350m figure completely and unambiguously wrong.

Comments

[arganoid.livejournal.com]

No, the rebate is separate from the money the EU spends in the UK. It's a discount on the money we pay to the EU, so it never leaves the UK's "bank account". But I've heard multiple Leavers make the same mistake even after the UK statistics agency pointed out this error on Friday.