Photo: Brexit Bus / Twitter
The Daily Mail’s claim that the NHS is receiving an extra £710 million a week from a Brexit dividend has been ruthlessly torn to shreds by Peter Stefanovic.
Reports in the right-wing newspaper from April, which appear to have been wilfully trotted out by the business secretary this week, suggest that the NHS has received the promised £350 million a week from the UK’s split with the European Union and some.
Reporter Ross Clark cited data from the “respected health think-tank” The King’s Fund, pointing out that government spending from 2016/17 to 2023/24 on the NHS is much higher.
It amounts to a “real-terms increase of £36.9 billion a year – or £710million per week”, Clark points out, which means that not only was Vote Leave’s £350 million pledge true, but it actually underestimated how much money would be transferred from the UK’s membership fee to the health service.
Of course, these figures don’t really take into account a number of factors which any data journalist worth their salt might want to consider.
Thankfully, Peter Stefanovic is on hand to set the record straight:
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