![](https://www.cer.eu/sites/default/files/styles/spotlight/public/leave_remain_flag_sl_2.jpg?itok=RmCS-EDl)
Distorted data that mask Britain's real plight
It was, for example, often repeated by Boris Johnson in the EU referendum campaign that Britain’s economic performance had for the last 15 years been much better than that of the rest of the EU. But Simon Tilford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, alleges that, on the contrary, Britain is in many ways the poor man of Europe.