Ian Murray: The five times Brexiteers shot down Boris’ “lie” of £350m for the NHS

A prominent Labour MP who backed Remain has waded into the Tory row over cash for the NHS by branding Boris Johnson’s claim of £350m an “outright lie”.

Ian Murray spoke out as a pro-EU campaigning organisation highlighted five key occasions when prominent supporters of a hard Brexit had admitted the controversial £350m figure promised by Vote Leave would not be delivered.

Johnson spent much of yesterday afternoon engaged in a public battle with the statistics watchdog over the foreign secretary’s reputation over the cash claim. Sir David Norgrove said he was “surprised and disappointed” that the foreign secretary had repeated the widely discredited claim.

Today Murray, a supporter of Open Britain, called on Johnson to apologise for returning to the figure when he penned a 4,000-words Daily Telegraph article widely seen as a fresh pitch for the Tory leadership.

“Boris Johnson has spent the weekend flailing around trying to justify his fantasy figure of Britain sending £350m a week to the EU,” said Murray, MP for Edinburgh South.

“He’s been contradicted by not just the UK Statistics Authority, but also, as we reveal today, by his own pro-hard Brexit colleagues, including the prime minister.

“They know what Boris seems unwilling to admit – that Vote Leave’s pledge was an outright lie which is never going to be delivered.

“Boris should put his leadership ambitions on ice and apologise for misleading the public with dodgy statistics.”

The five times Leavers admitted that £350m will not be delivered, according to Open Britain:

1) Theresa May admits £350 million pledged to NHS by Brexit campaign isn’t going to happen: “We will be, as part of the negotiations, we’ll be ensuring that we’re not paying those significant sums in the future. We will then be able to see what the size of that dividend will be and then determine how that money is spent…There’s lots of things to think about.”

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2) Iain Duncan Smith backtracks on leave side’s £350m NHS claim: “I never said that during the course of the election.”

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3) Nigel Farage: £350m pledge to fund the NHS was “a mistake”: “That was one of the mistakes made by the Leave campaign.”

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4) £350m a week extra for the NHS only “an aspiration” says Vote Leave campaigner Chris Grayling: “The specific proposal by the Vote Leave campaign was in fact to spend £100m a week of that on the NHS.  I hope that aspiration will be met.”

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5) Michael Gove: Vote Leave only promised £100m a week for the NHS: “I will take all the steps necessary to give the NHS at least £100m per week by 2020 … I was clear if you look at the net figures, we needed to take back control of that money, and with the net sum give £100m extra each week to the NHS.”

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