EU referendum: 10 myths about the European Union and the truth

Remain supporters dressed as bananas at a protest

Politicians were always going to play fast and loose with the facts in this campaign.

The European project has been the subject of misinformation from the days when the Treaty of Rome was merely a twinkle in the eye of a French civil servant; it is just powerful enough, and opaque enough, for almost anything to be credible, and for the truth to be relatively hard to extract.

Readers may notice that the Brexit camp is over-represented here: that is not, as some may infer, editorial bias. In general, the Leavers are more prone to making statements that are simply wrong: the Remainers, for their part, produce doomsday calculations that may overstate their case, but are generally harder to “pop”. In any case, let’s get the needle out…

Myth 1: We send £350m a week to Brussels

Priti Patel on the Brexit campaign stall

Truth: We don’t. The £350m figure may be emblazoned on the side of the Vote Leave battle bus, but it ignores the rebate the UK receives, as Boris Johnson eventually admitted to ITV. The net cost of membership per week is £120m. Not to be sniffed at, but a sum many believe access to the single market more than compensates for.

Myth 2: Kiss goodbye to free EU roaming on your phone

Truth: The ABTA, a travel agents’ body, has gone in for a pound when the truth is closer to a penny. In all likelihood, with a bit of negotiation, roaming charges would not be levied on us if we vote to Leave (as the UK could be expected to levy them in return on EU citizens dropping by to see what Buckingham Palace looks like in the post-Brexit light).

Myth 3: The EU’s “human rights” laws prevent us from deporting criminals

Truth: You’ve got the wrong man. The EU is wholly separate from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which does, on rare occasions, assert that convicted criminals have – for example – the right to family life, and so can stay in the UK.