Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray — better known as Stop Brexit Steve — has once again made headlines after confronting a senior Treasury minister about the enormous cost of leaving the EU.
Outside a recent media appearance, Bray quizzed Labour’s Pat McFadden on the estimated £40 billion in lost annual revenue since Brexit.
“One quick question,” Bray said. “£40bn lost revenue per year from leaving the European Union. That would fill so many holes, wouldn’t it?”
McFadden replied: “We just concluded a really good trade agreement with the EU that will get rid of a lot of the costs and the bureaucracy and the delays for people.
“We don’t want to rerun the argument but we came into office thinking we could get a better deal than the Tories had and, I believe, we have met that promise.”
📉 £40bn missing — and counting
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had long warned that Brexit would drag down UK productivity. Their forecast? A 4% drop in long-run output — the equivalent of £40 billion in lost tax receipts between 2019 and 2024.
For context, the government raised £100bn in new taxes during the same period. Had we stayed in the EU — or even just gone with a softer Brexit — some of that pain might’ve been avoided.
🧮 ‘Undeniable’ damage to UK growth
John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said the OBR’s grim forecasts have been proven right. “The predictions of Brexit’s impact on the UK economy have been borne out,” he told The Times. “It’s undeniable.”
And the forecast isn’t looking much sunnier moving forward. The OBR says we’ve only seen the beginning — with the full impact expected to take 15 years. That could mean a 15% hit to trade volumes compared to an EU membership scenario.
So while ministers celebrate a “better deal”, critics argue the real damage is already done — and that Britain is paying the price.
You may also like: Labour’s welfare bill passes – Here is full list of how every MP voted
