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“We made clear” during the Brexit campaign that a no-deal Brexit was a possibility

Dominic Raab, Today programme

28 July 2019

Claim

The foreign secretary told the Today programme: “We made clear — those on the campaign — that we should strive for a good deal, but if that wasn’t available, that we should go on and make a success of Brexit, and so that was discussed.” He said: “I was questioned on it by the BBC almost every time I appeared and so was Michael Gove… There’s all sorts of interviews which said that of course we’d prefer a deal, but that there would be a risk.”

Facts

However, BBC’s Reality Check and Channel 4’s FactCheck have since said that they cannot find evidence that Dominic Raab warned of no-deal Brexit before the referendum. FactCheck said it searched the Vote Leave website, Mr Raab’s personal website, BBC web pages, online newspaper archives and YouTube. It said it listened to “as many as many clips as we can find of interviews given by Raab and Gove between February 2016, when the EU referendum campaign unofficially began, and the vote on 23 June 2016.”

Verdict

Some of Raab and Gove’s interviews from 2016 cannot be checked as footage and transcripts are no longer online. However, there is no question that Raab’s statements that he was questioned by the BBC “almost every time” he appeared and gave multiple interviews that mentioned no deal was a possibility are demonstrably false.

When I questioned Raab’s office, I was sent a document listing examples of leave campaigners mentioning no deal before the referendum. Only one concerned Raab himself.

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