Recession costs dwarfed by cost of EU membership

The cost of the recession is dwarfed by the total cost of Britain’s membership of the European Union, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said today.

Mr Farage said that there was a general consensus among studies examining the cost of EU membership, including regulatory costs, that the true figure amounted to over £133 bn per year for the UK, equivalent to 7.1% of GDP based on figures announced this morning.

In comparison, government borrowing over the past 12 months to ease the current recession currently stands at £ 90bn, or just under 5% of GDP.

Mr Farage said that while these costs were scandalous and amounted to a sum sufficient to build over 1,300 new, fully equipped hospitals every year in the UK, they also wasted a huge opportunity.

A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that a removal of the EU’s regulatory burden from the UK would produce a boost of between 10 and 12% of GDP to the UK economy, potentially reversing the effects of the credit crunch.

Mr Farage said, “It is quite clear from these figures that the government is caught in a trap of its own making.

“Reducing the regulatory burden on the UK economy would accelerate the UK’s recovery from the current recession, and yet the government’s hands are tied by its EU membership.

“If you asked pretty much anyone outside of our parliament at Westminster whether they’d prefer new hospitals or more regulation, it’s pretty clear which they’d choose.”