New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually
Stay Out group launches ahead of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's visit to Brussels
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Getty Images Union Jack and EU flags outside the Houses of Parliament in London.
Photograph: BBC News (embedded from source)
What this story says
- A new campaign group, Stay Out, has been formed to oppose the UK rejoining the EU.
- The group estimates that rejoining the EU would cost the UK £39.3 billion per year, or £750 million per week.
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham is scheduled to sign agreements on food, energy, and youth mobility with the EU on 20 November.
- Lord Gove has warned that rejoining would mean relinquishing control over laws, borders, money, and trade.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 2 of the 8 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
70/100
Craft
95/100
Hype
30/100
8 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
A campaign group called Stay Out has launched to campaign against the UK rejoining the European Union. The group estimates that such a move would cost the UK £39.3 billion annually, equating to £750 million per week. This analysis was published ahead of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's scheduled visit to Brussels on 20 November, where he is expected to sign agreements concerning food, energy, and youth mobility with the EU.
Lord Gove, a prominent figure from the Vote Leave campaign, has publicly supported Stay Out. He stated that rejoining the EU would result in the UK handing back control of its laws, borders, money, and trade, while also incurring higher membership costs than before. Oliver Lewis, who chaired Vote Leave and acted as deputy chief negotiator for the UK government in trade talks with the bloc, chairs the new Stay Out campaign. Lewis stated that the country is ready to move on from arguments about Europe and focus on domestic priorities.
Disagreement on EU budget changes
The Stay Out campaign's analysis suggests that the EU's budget is set to almost double to €2 trillion. This projected increase in the EU's budget is cited as a reason for the higher potential cost of membership compared to when the UK was a member previously. The BBC noted that it had not independently verified the group's calculations.
What the coverage left out
None of the right-rated reports mention that Prime Minister Andy Burnham has argued Brexit has done "more harm than good". None of the right-rated reports mention that Burnham has ruled out major changes to the UK's relationship with the EU before the next general election. None of the right-rated reports mention that Burnham previously advocated for rejoining the EU within his lifetime, though he acknowledged this might not be the current stance.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 2 times, most recently on 14 Nov 2026, 10:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
1 rated outlet
- The centre-rated report from the BBC led with the launch of the new campaign against EU membership, noting it occurred ahead of a UK-EU summit. It reported that Prime Minister Andy Burnham is exploring closer ties and is expected to sign new agreements on food, energy, and youth mobility on 20 November. The report included warnings from Stay Out about the potential cost to taxpayers and from Lord Gove about losing control of laws, borders, money, and trade. It also mentioned that the BBC had not independently verified the campaign group's cost calculations.
Right
5 rated outlets
- Right-rated reports focused heavily on the financial cost of rejoining the EU, with headlines frequently stating the £750 million per week figure. These reports highlighted the formation of the Stay Out campaign, often mentioning its leadership, including Oliver Lewis and Lord Gove, and framing it as a 'rival campaign' or 'fightback' against potential moves to rejoin. Some reports noted that the EU's budget has doubled since the UK left, contributing to the increased cost. Lord Gove's warnings about losing control of laws, borders, money, and trade were also prominent. The reports mentioned Prime Minister Andy Burnham's upcoming visit to Brussels for new agreements but often contrasted this with the warnings about rejoining costs.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 20% are rated centre, 80% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 8. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually biased?
- New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually is one event reported by 8 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered New campaign warns rejoining EU would cost UK £39.3bn annually?
- 8 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How much would it cost the UK to rejoin the EU?
- The campaign group Stay Out estimates that rejoining the EU would cost the UK £39.3 billion per year, which equates to £750 million per week. This figure is attributed to increased EU budget contributions.
- What agreements is Prime Minister Andy Burnham set to sign with the EU?
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham is scheduled to sign agreements with the EU on 20 November concerning food, energy, and youth mobility. These are part of his exploration of closer ties with the bloc.
- What are the main arguments against rejoining the EU?
- Arguments against rejoining include the potential loss of control over laws, borders, money, and trade, as stated by Lord Gove. The Stay Out campaign also highlights the significant financial cost of membership.
Read it at the source
8 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
1Right
5- EU membership would cost Britain £40bn a year as Burnham pushes for closer ties - London Business News (opens London Loves Business in a new tab)
London Loves Business — is London Loves Business biased? Our profile of this outlet
- EUR 900 Million per Week: the Sum that Would Cost the United Kingdom to Return to the European Union (opens La Razón in a new tab)
- Brexiteers launch rival campaign to Andy Burnham's rejoin EU plans as fightback starts this weekend (opens GB News in a new tab)
- Labour's bid to rejoin the EU could cost the UK £750 milllion a week (opens dailymail.com in a new tab)
dailymail.com — is dailymail.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- New Pro-Britain Campaign Finds Rejoining Would Cost £750 Million Per Week (opens Guido Fawkes in a new tab)
Guido Fawkes — is Guido Fawkes biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
2- Britain faces £750m-a-week bill if it rejoins EU as campaigners warn of huge cost to taxpayers (opens Flying Eze in a new tab)
Flying Eze — is Flying Eze biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Return of the United Kingdom to the European Union Would Cost 900 Million Euros per Week (opens N Digital in a new tab)
How did this read?
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