A simple question which,
unfortunately, has a complex answer:
even the British government doesn't
seem to know exactly how much it
hands over to the EU each year.

A projected summary for
2016-2017 is shown right.

However, bear in mind that our gross contribution is rising, the rebate is declining (thanks to Tony Blair's 'renegotiations' of 2006), and the EU spends £4.6 billion of our own money in our own country on projects which they, rather than we, deem fit. A British government should be able to make better decisions than the EU on how to spend taxpayers' money in Britain.

The indirect costs on the economy are much higher. These include the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy and over-regulation on business, to name just three.

Professor Tim Congdon has calculated that the direct and indirect costs to our economy for 2015 to be 12% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or £190 billion per annum.