The backtracking on promises by Brexit campaigners has already begun

No promises.
No promises.
Image: Reuters/Vincent Kessler
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Within 90 minutes of the announcement that just over half the UK voted for “Brexit,” one of the most prominent “leave” campaigners reneged on a key pledge ceaselessly repeated before the poll.

Nigel Farage, leader the UK Independence party, who campaigned vociferously for years for the UK to leave the EU, said that pledging to re-assign money that used to go to the EU budget to the National Health Service was ”a mistake.”

But most Brexit supporters, including Farage, routinely overstated the amount that Britain pays into the EU budget, often stating that £350 million ($479 million) is ”sent” to Brussels every week. That didn’t stop the “leave” camp claiming that if it won, it would spend the “saved” money on the National Health Service.

Here is Boris Johnson, another prominent pro-Brexit figure, standing in front of a bus bearing the slogan.

Boris Johnson bus
“… or, let’s not.”
Image: Reuters/Darren Staples