Don't be fooled by Project Fear 2.0: Britain is better off out of the European Union

Where are we, ten years on from the EU referendum? Has Brexit been worth it? This is a question I’ve been asked several times, as the former CEO of the Vote Leave campaign, in the run-up to the 10th anniversary.In my new book, Ten Years On, which gives my perspective on the EU referendum campaign and its aftermath, I answer this question with a resounding ‘Yes’. But I’m sad to hear similar arguments being repeated from the ‘Project Fear’ we had to confront a decade ago. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say This time, they are designed to shake our confidence in Brexit and persuade us to rejoin the European Union.Andy Burnham, our presumptive next Prime Minister, has said that he wants us back in the EU within his lifetime. And his rumoured Chancellor, Wes Streeting, says Britain's future lies back in the European Union”.They say we're poorer because of Brexit, isolated on the world stage, and safer as members of the EU.Let’s start with the economy. The most-cited studies claiming that Brexit shrank the economy rest on a flawed assumption: that we would have grown as fast as the United States and Estonia had we stayed in the EU. If we had America's cheap energy or Estonia's low, simple taxes, we'd certainly be richer. We lack both. We’re more like France, Germany and Italy economically, and we’ve outperformed all three of them since 2016.Second, we didn’t ‘pull up the drawbridge’ after Brexit. We’ve led the way with our assistance to Ukraine. LATEST DEVELOPMENTSOur role in Nato is undiminished. We’ve negotiated multiple trade deals, including with the US, India and the Pacific bloc. And our exports have grown faster than any G7 economy bar Canada since 2016.Finally, remember what remaining in the EU would have looked like. Our membership fee would now run to £28billion without the rebate. We'd be bound by the 14,000 new EU regulations issued since 2016. And we’d be tied to a protectionist trade bloc which used to dominate the global economy but will soon account for only 10 per cent of world GDP.So don’t be tempted to rejoin. Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last week that the UK shouldn’t expect any special treatment – we’d have to sign up to the Schengen free movement area and the Euro. Even Gina Miller – who tried so hard to prevent Brexit in the Supreme Court – thinks that “rejoining the EU is not the answer”.The public opposes rejoining the EU whenever the facts are explained. Thank goodness for the wisdom of the great British public.We made the right decision in 2016. Now we need to do the hard yards to grow our economy. The policies which build a richer country are easily described, they focus on cheap energy, lower taxes and less government waste, and every one of them is easier to deliver outside the EU than in it.Rather than looking back to the referendum, which took place a decade ago, let’s use the policy freedoms we fought for to put Britain in the fast lane for economic growth. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter