Boris Johnson spent £100m on a pointless Brexit ad campaign. He could have trained 3,000 teachers instead

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Boris Johnson's government has embarked on a costly propaganda campaign funded by the taxpayer. You’ve probably seen the billboards and newspapers splashed with the words “Get ready for Brexit”. These advertisements offer little advice on how anyone can begin preparations for Brexit (it’s not even clear whether we can, beyond stockpiling tinned food and water like some kind of doomsday cult), just warns us that we all must start, and start immediately. It's bit like a pilot shouting “brace for impact'' as hundreds of passengers plunge helplessly towards the ground.

The campaign has cost £100m. Regardless of whether it or not breaks campaign rules, as Labour MP Mary Creagh has claimed, it doesn’t seem like the best way to be spending public funds.

Instead of arguing about the merits of this campaign, let’s instead look at the opportunity cost. How could the government have otherwise invested that £100m in ways which will benefit young people in society who have to live with the ramifications of Brexit for the longest?

The National Education Union found that, since 2015, £5.4bn has been cut from school budgets. While £100m won’t go far in making up for that damage, there are some areas in which this money could be invested. A teachers union poll, for example, found that 94 per cent of teachers spend money out of their own pockets to buy school supplies for their students. If the government doesn’t want to go as far as properly funding our schools, they could pay back those teachers who are spending their own income to plug that gap, some of whom have spent as much as £5,000. Alternatively, with a starting salary of £30,000 and the number of teachers in decline, we could fund more than 3,000 new teachers instead.

Or let's look at the impact that money would have had on some of the most vulnerable pupils in the UK. Recent changes to the qualifying threshold for free school meals (based on family income before benefits) could see 100,000 children going hungry at lunchtime. For exactly the price of a pointless Brexit ad campaign, the government could provide 250,000 students free meals at a cost of around £2 a day per pupil. This is the most privately educated cabinet since John Major’s era, and they show little concern for those who don't eat their meals with a silver spoon.

Alternatively, perhaps the government could have put public funds towards fighting the greatest threat humanity has ever faced? Scientists have suggested that the most effective and cheapest way to reduce carbon in the atmosphere is to plant as many trees as possible, as quickly as possible. Back in 2018, the government gave £60m towards this endeavour, with an aim to plant over 10 million trees. Based on the government's own estimates, £100m could help plant an additional 16 million trees. This would double the number planted since the Conservatives took over government: a symbolic and practical commitment to acting on the climate emergency declared earlier this year.

Given it was Michael Gove’s plan last time, it’s surprising that he has yet to put this policy to Johnson. Then again, if you advise Johnson on the climate crisis you are putting your job at risk, as the 60 per cent of Foreign Office climate attaches Johnson let go during his time as foreign secretary found out.

But the fact remains that this ad campaign is at best an inefficient use of public money and at worst misleading propaganda. This government is both currently fixated on Brexit and will remain so for years to come – regardless of whether we leave with a deal on the 31 October or not.

Contrary to what the slogan, “Let’s get Brexit done", implies, leaving the EU at the end of this month is not the end of Brexit; it’s just the beginning. Vast amounts of time and effort will still have to go towards negotiating new trade agreements and reducing any economic and social impacts that may emerge. And this flabbergasting £100m PR campaign is a drop in the ocean of £6bn that has been spent on Brexit so far – a figure that will only rise as we wrestle with the fallout of a no-deal exit.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A Final Say referendum on whatever deal is available and our current deal with the EU would provide swift clarity and closure - whichever way the electorate decides to vote. And once it has, and the issue of Brexit has been settled, we can focus on fixing the issues that got us here in the first place. Because if we don’t, we will end up here again.

Johnnie Dowling is a campaigner with Our Future, Our Choice