Facts

The Office for Budget Responsibility reported that, “The latest evidence suggests that Brexit has had a significant adverse impact on U.K. trade, via reducing both overall trade volumes and the number of trading relationships between U.K. and EU firms.”

The report goes on to reaffirm their earlier predictions, made in March 2020, that Brexit would ultimately reduce productivity and UK gross domestic product by 4 percent compared with a world where the country remained inside the EU.

The Financial Times estimates that level of decline, worth £100bn a year in lost output, to result in lost revenues for the Treasury of roughly £40bn a year 

Verdict

Andrew Griffith’s claim that "Brexit can deliver, and is already delivering, enormous benefits and opportunities” is false.

Like many other Conservative ministers, Andrew Griffith is in a state of denial regarding the impact of Brexit. In the case of Mr Griffith this is particularly troubling, since he is a Treasury minister.  He was misleading Parliament. He has not subsequently corrected his false statement, meaning that his remark is in breach of the Ministerial Code.

We emailed Andrew Griffith’s office and HM Treasury offering them the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.

Amusing Additional Note: When Griffith was asked by fellow MP Peter Grant to give an example of a Brexit benefit to support his statement, he failed to do so. He instead answered, “I am afraid we do not have enough time left to share all the benefits that we are delivering.”