He told Today: “I am fascinated he says carrying on as we are would be disastrous for Britain. He and I fought an election campaign last year, a successful election campaign, in which we told the British people we were creating more jobs, we’d kept inflation down, we were bringing the deficit down, were creating millions of new apprenticeships. We have done all that as members of the EU. It seems to me a bit odd to say nine months later: ‘Oh it is all disastrous.’”

But the UK seems reluctant, or rather the UK Government seems reluctant to take any subsidies, because it would mean a smaller rebate for the Treasury at the end of the year.

So instead of letting companies, farmers etc. get the subsidies that they could claim, they are dissuaded, so that the Treasury gets some money back. Then they claim that the EU is useless and a waste of money...