'You were right!' Boris Johnson issues direct message to GB News readers on 10-year Brexit anniversary

Mr Johnson, who held office as Prime Minister from July 2019 to September 2022, was an active campaigner for the Leave movement, turning against then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

“It was 10 years ago that the people of this country voted to leave the EU in the biggest-ever expression of support for any proposition or Government in our democratic history," Mr Johnson told GB News.

"There were 17.4 million who voted Leave - including millions of readers and viewers of GB News. You were totally right!"

Brexit campaigners pointed to the "project fear" pushed onto the public from Treasury reports at the time, and "back of the queue" rhetoric with fearmongering of a WW3.

Critics described the "industrial-scale deception attempted on the British people" by the David Cameron cabinet, alongside Chancellor George Osborn.

In 2016, No10 released a glossy, pro-EU, 16-page booklet, which cost millions from taxpayer funds, and was delivered through 30 million doors across Britain.

The Treasury produced two reports that May, with the second showing the immediate forecast recessionary impact of leaving the EU.

The report estimated 500,000 to 820,000 jobs lost, that Sterling would drop by 12 to 15 per cent, and GDP would shrink by 3.6 to 6 per cent within 24 months - all of which failed to manifest.

The prior long-term economic impact predicted £4,300 as the headline figure for the annual cost per household of leaving.

Other official predictions included a 6.2 per cent GDP reduction and a £36billion public finance black hole.

Then-Chancellor George Osborne said at the time a vote to leave would mean Britain would be "permanently poorer".

He said: "Under any alternative, we’d trade less, do less business and receive less investment. And the price would be paid by British families. Wages would be lower and prices would be higher."

But on the 10-year anniversary, a YouGov poll this month revealed only 27 per cent of people would sacrifice UK sovereignty over their laws for access to the Single Market.

Lord John Redwood, the original EU Single Market Minister, said: "It is no wonder the public tell pollsters they do not want to sacrifice self-Government again in the futile pursuit of more trade with the EU.

"The most priceless win from Brexit was the right to set our own taxes and laws. Most of us have no wish to go back to sending them most of our tariff revenue, plastics tax and share of our VAT, which would mean more tax rises at home.

"Nor do we want to have to accept their lower animal welfare standards, their higher tariffs on imports from non-EU countries, and the loss of our new trade deals with the TPP and India, faster-growing parts of the world."

"Our 47 years in the EEC/EU saw our growth rate halve, our fishing industry decimated, many of our orchards grubbed up and many of our factories closed as EU rules and taxes led us to more dependence on EU imports.

"We paid huge sums to the EU to pay for its bureaucracy and to send to other EU states. Our trade was always in heavy deficit with them as directives and regulations favoured their ways of doing things and their trade agreements did not help our service-led economy.

"The EU turned our Parliament into a rubber stamp for their many laws and regulations. Successive Governments signed up for ever more centralised EU Government, losing our veto to stop many things that acted against our interests. People voted for change in elections but the EU prevented it."

Despite it all, the 2016 result was a win for Leave by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Lord Redwood highlighted that by the time the UK left, it was costing a scorching £17billion a year just to belong, and that despite a "poor exit deal, we are now saving the annual "contribution".

Freedom of movement with the EU drove more than six million people to emigrate to the UK, and the EU also allowed the live export of animals for slaughter.

Lord Redwood noted that after joining, car exports slumped from 300,000 to 130,000, steel output fell from 28 million to 18 million tonnes over the first decade, shipbuilding more than halved, and production of larger commercial planes ceased.

He said kitchen imports also surged from 10 per cent of the market to over 50 per cent, with UK cement output slumping from 20 million to eight million tonnes, and we now import 30 per cent of our demand.

Additionally, the UK went from landing 1 million tonnes of fish in 1970, to 400,000 tonnes in 2020 - plunging from 700 trawlers to just 30 larger boats.