A prominent Leave MP has put distance between himself and a key NHS promise following last week’s Brexit victory.

Former minister, Iain Duncan Smith, called Vote Leave’s £350 million pledge to the NHS an “extrapolation” while on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday (June 26).

It featured heavily in the run up to the EU referendum with the pledge blazoned across Vote Leave’s battle bus, which toured the country stirring support for Brexit.

The pledge stated “we send the EU £350 million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead”.

The Chingford and Woodford Green MP led Brexit campaigners through his constituency on the battle bus a few weeks before the nation decided its future on June 23.


When asked to clarify the pledge Mr Duncan Smith said “The 350 million was an extrapolation of the 19.1 billion” paid to the EU in total last year.

He added: “What we actually said was, a significant amount of it would go to the NHS.

“It was never total but it is a commitment.”

Despite appearing beside the bus Mr Duncan Smith said it is “not a promise broken” and he “never said that” in the course of the referendum campaign.

He added: “We hand over 19.1 billion pounds, half of which is gone into the European Union and the other bits come back.

“We said throughout we would stand by some critical areas.

“Those areas being funded in structural regional funds would be funded, we’d have more money to spend on the NHS, because we wouldn’t be losing half of that sum of money.

“And we’d stand by commitments being made to things like agriculture.

“The rest were all just a series of possibilities.”

The Conservative went on to say “it is down to the government” to decide what “proportion” of the £350 million would be spent on the NHS.