Brexiteers launch rival campaign to Andy Burnham's rejoin EU plans as fightback starts this weekend

Brexiteers have launched a grassroots campaign in a bid to quash Andy Burnham's bid to bring Britain back into the EU.

The furious fightback will start this weekend, made up of Vote Leave alumni joining forces a decade after their winning campaign in 2016.

Oliver Lewis, Boris Johnson's chief Brexit negotiator, as well as Michael Gove, the chairman of the 2016 campaign, are heading up the new campaign: "Stay Out: Our Money, Our Priorities".

Mr Lewis said: "The EU that Britain would be rejoining is more indebted, divided and expensive than the one we left, and on the Commission’s own numbers it would cost us £750million a week, with no rebate.

"The bloc is also getting bigger, with Albania, Moldova and the western Balkans all in the queue to join, and Brussels wants Britain back in as one of the few countries rich enough to pay for it.

"The country has had enough of arguing about Europe and it is time to move on and spend our money on our own priorities."

The campaign warned the preliminary costs for rejoining the EU would come to £750million each week.

The estimate has assessed the European Commission’s own 2028 revenue forecasts for its next budget, as well as proposed funding rules to UK data.

The major sum equates to almost double the £19.1billion gross contribution Britain made in 2016, which equated to over £350million a week.

The Brexiteers blamed the ballooning Brussels bill on the EU's skyrocketing budget which is set to almost double to €2trillion.

The Commission has forecast that it will need 1.26 per cent of members’ gross national income in 2028, rising from about 0.9 per cent in 2019.

And, due to the extensive borrowing which took place during the pandemic, the cost will climb from €9.9billion in 2027 to €24billion the next year, the analysis shows.

LABOUR'S 'BREXIT BETRAYAL' - READ MORE:

• Andy Burnham edges closer to EU reset as PM declares new Brexit deal is 'what voters wanted in 2016'
• Britain to 'adopt EU law every 12 hours' under Andy Burnham Brexit reset, peers warn
• Andy Burnham tells David Cameron 'you're WRONG' after arch-Remainer rejects calls to reverse Brexit

Finally, the rebate Britain held from 1985 would not return, which Michel Barnier, the EU’s former chief negotiator, said would be “off the table”.

The Commission could also be eyeing up six extra charges on EU members, from electrical waste and tobacco - to major businesses.

The bill, as a result, could rise to a staggering £803million a week, the campaign analysis found.

The new campaign has been launched a week before Andy Burnham's crunch Brussels summit with European leaders on November 20.

In a few days' time, the Prime Minister is expected to buckle to pressure from member states over food and farming regulations.

Since entering No10, Mr Burnham's own campaign to bring the UK closer to the EU, admitting he would like to see Britain rejoin the bloc "within his lifetime" - a claim which has even drawn criticism from his allies.

Lord Gove, as part of the fightback, further warned rejoining "would mean handing back control of our laws, borders, money and trade" - as well as coughing up a "good deal more" in membership fees.

He continued: "Families worried about their mortgages, energy bills and the weekly shop want a government that spends its time and their money on easing the cost of living.

"Sending £750million a week to Brussels would do nothing to help with any of this.

"Reopening this question would just commit the country to another decade of fractious negotiations and a return to the divisions we have spent years putting behind us, at the very moment people are desperate for Westminster to get on with delivering on their priorities."