YP Letters: The £350m a week for NHS was not a Brexit commitment

From: Alan Machin, Bessacarr, Doncaster.
Did Boris Johnson mislead voters over the NHS?Did Boris Johnson mislead voters over the NHS?
Did Boris Johnson mislead voters over the NHS?

YOUR Editorial (The Yorkshire Post, April 4) refers to a commitment from Leave campaigners to provide the NHS with an extra £350m a week. This was never a commitment and you refer to ‘eye-watering promises’ by prominent Leavers without identifying them.

It was pointed out during the referendum debates that the £350m was the gross figure and Nigel Farage at the time stated it was better to use the net figure which is nearer to £10 billion a year. It was also clarified that the £350m each week included a rebate which is due to end soon; funding to be allocated to farming and other needs identified for the regions, research and universities.

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In recent weeks we have had some career politicians yet again asking about the £350m to be spent on the NHS shown on the Vote Leave bus. If any MP did not know, or realise, that there was virtually no chance of this money being allocated in its entirety, they are more naïve than even I thought. As someone who voted to leave, I am still waiting for the emergency budget, recession, fall in house prices and to be £4,000 a year worse off – as promised by the Remain camp.

From: D Wood, Howden.

WHAT Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage said was that this money and that it could be spent on the NHS. They did not say that it would be spent on the NHS because they were not in a position to do so. Also on the front page, Dan Jarvis MP is asking about £600m of EU funding for our region. There is no reason that this funding should not continue – it is British taxpayers’ money simply being returned by the EU.

From: Mr SB Oliver, Churchill Grove, Heckmondwike.

DON Burslam (The Yorkshire Post, April 3) accuses the (majority) Leave campaigners of being arrogant and dictatorial. He predicts that “the ship could be heading for the rocks” because he believes that events will prove that the vote was a “terrible mistake” and could somehow be corrected later.

He also mentions its effect on the millions of young people who voted to remain. There were many more millions more young people that chose not to vote.

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Out of all the young voters, 32 per cent voted Remain, 11 per cent voted Leave but 57 per cent chose not to vote.

Mr Burslam should consider telling those younger voters that it is partly their own fault because more than half of them didn’t bother to vote.