Unbound Fact Check: Jeremy Vine Show, 25th May

Jeremy Vine - “The EU chief, Sandro Gozi, who is the head of the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly, said our return to the bloc could be fast-tracked if desired, but we'd have to join the euro like any other candidate currency”

TRUE – This is indeed an accurate account of the statement made by MEP Sandro Gozi, though to be specific he is the head of the EU delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly. He stated that UK accession “could be done more quickly than for other countries” but also stated that the UK would have to abandon its “obsession with carve-outs” meaning that the UK would have to be a full member of all aspects including the Euro.

Note: The accession treaties to the EU include an obligation to adopt the Euro, but also acknowledge that the accession country has to meet the criteria before they will be allowed to adopt the Euro – so the obligation exists in the treaty, but it is not an immediate switchover, but a process that takes time and effort to achieve.

Source: Independent, 23 May 2026, "EU could fast-track Britain’s membership if UK decided to reverse Brexit" - Click Here to Read

Jeremy Vine - “Wes Streeting, for example, said the UK should do it [rejoin the EU] one day”

TRUE – As quoted by Sky News, the exact quote from Wes Streeting was that "We ‌need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain's future lies with Europe, and one day - one day - ‌back in the European Union"

Source: Sky News, 17 May 2026, "Wes Streeting says he will run in any leadership race" - Click Here to Read

Jeremy Vine - “Andy Burnham said there was a long-term case for rejoining”

TRUE – The Guardian quotes Andy Burnham as having stated that he saw a “long term” case for rejoining the EU, but that he would not be advocating for it immediately.

Source: The Guardian, 17 May 2026, "Where does UK-EU relationship stand and how might bid to rejoin bloc be received" - Click Here to Read

Jeremy Vine - “Starmer has ruled out rejoining the EU, but he also, over the weekend, started to talk about attempting to foster a closer relationship, and it then came out, amazingly, that we've actually directly discussed a customs union and been told, no, sorry, because that's the halfway house.”

PARTIALLY TRUE – As part of the Labour manifesto in 2024, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer did indeed rule out rejoining the EU, as well as ruling out the Single Market, Customs Union and any return to Freedom of Movement. However Jeremy Vine was incorrect about there having been news on directly discussing a Customs Union and having been rejected – this was in fact an attempt to negotiate rejoining the Single Market but just for goods, and was rejected as it was seen as cherry-picking and trying to divide the four freedoms of the Single Market (Goods, Services, People, Capital) which are considered as indivisible by the EU.

Source: Labour Manifesto 2024 - Click Here to Read
Source: The Guardian, 22 May 2026, "UK pitched single market for goods with EU in pursuit of deeper trade ties" - Click Here to Read

Yasmin Alibhai Brown - “Like, we were the first country to pass equality laws. They didn't exist in the EU, and we influenced them into”

TRUE – The UK did indeed have a pioneering role in Europe on equality laws, with the Race Relations Act of 1965, the Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. The EU followed suit later, heavily influenced by the UKs legislation.

Source: UK Parliament Publications, 24 February 2017 - Click Here to Read

Yasmin Alibhai Brown - “the 61% at the moment want to be closer to the EU”

PARTIALLY TRUE – On polling on the question of “being closer” to the EU, it is certainly the case that for some time that opinion polls have shown majority support for being closer – however as always the devil is in the detail, and there is of course no universally agreed definition of what “being closer” means, so it is used to mean anything those interpreting it wish it to mean.

This particular figure, 61%, is in reference to polling conducted by YouGov on behalf of pro-EU campaign group “Best for Britain”, as published in the Guardian on 17 April. The Guardian also makes sure to highlight that though the collective 61% figure is quoted, the data from the poll also showed that only 19% did so “strongly”.

In this particular polling, the definition of “closer to the EU” is explained as being closer, without rejoining the EU, the Single Market or the Customs Union.

Source: The Guardian, 17 April 2026, "More than half of Britons support rejoining EU 10 years on from Brexit vote" - Click Here to Read

Yasmin Alibhai Brown - “49% want to join the customs union, 46 the single market, and rejoin the EU is 53%. It's just edged up”

TRUE – These figures are also from the same polling conducted on behalf of the pro-EU campaign group “Best for Britain”, as published by the Guardian on 17 April.

Source: The Guardian, 17 April 2026, "More than half of Britons support rejoining EU 10 years on from Brexit vote" - Click Here to Read

Caller 1 (Christopher in Kent) - “[The EU] It's run by unelected bureaucrats”

PARTIALLY TRUE – Though the term has become somewhat derogatory in common parlance, the EU as an organisation is operated by the EU Commission, which is a 33,000 person structure of civil servants, in the wider EU civil service count of around 60,000 people when the other major institutions and agencies are included.

The EU Commission is responsible for proposing and drafting all EU legislation; ensuring and enforcing the application of EU rules in member states; overseeing and implementing the budget; and representing the 27 EU member states on the world stage.

As this is the equivalent of the UK Civil Service, none of the 33,000 are elected to their positions by the people of the EU, and so it is fair to describe them as “unelected bureaucrats” who “run” the EU, as that is a fair description of their jobs and roles. However, the EU Commission is not alone in the hierarchy and structure of the EU.

Though new regulations and directives can only be proposed and drafted by the EU Commission (the “unelected bureaucrats”), they can only be brought into effect if approved by the EU Parliament of MEPs who are directly elected by the people of the 27 member states, and the European Council which is made up of the heads of state of each of the 27 member states.

Source: EU Commission Factsheet, 6 April 2019 - Click Here to Read
Source: The Economist, 14 July 2017, "Does it make sense to refer to EU officials as unelected bureaucrats?" - Click Here to Read

Caller 1 (Christopher in Kent) - “when they're going to be taking on another nine countries who are much poorer”

MOSTLY TRUE – There are currently ten countries officially in various stages of the EU accession process, and all but Turkey could fairly be described as poorer (though Ukraine is poorer for a different reason to the rest). Kosovo is also considered in the accession queue, but it is not formally recognised as being a country by five EU member states, so is not counted - hence why the official number is nine countries and not ten. The full list of ten countries include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

A leaked EU document in 2023 outlined that accession of these nine countries would result in “All member states having to pay more to and receive less from the EU budget; many member states who are currently net receivers will become net contributors,”. the document goes on to estimate that the EU budget would need to increase by over 20% if all nine countries were to join.

Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2023, "Adding nine countries to EU to cost existing members more than €250bn" - Click Here to Read

Caller 3 (John in North Yorkshire) - “And also we would the trade barrier would actually go. It wouldn't be the tariffs and quotas”

FALSE – There is a fundamental misunderstanding of the free nature of intra-member trade within the EU, much of which in the UK could fairly be assumed to relate to the overuse of the description “frictionless trade” when the EU has nothing of the sort.

In a paper published in December 2024, the IMF stated that “intra-EU barriers remain significant” and that those on goods were equivalent to a 44% tariff. Those on services were even higher, equivalent to a 110% tariff. When considering that the UK is a much more services-driven economy than any other member state, it was by the EUs own admission that the UK benefitted the least from Single Market membership.

The caller also stated that there “wouldn’t be the tariffs and quotas” if we were to rejoin, which is also false as the UK has a zero tariff and zero quota free trade agreement with the EU. So the only exports from the UK to the EU that face tariffs and quotas, are goods that are not actually from the UK.

Source: IMF, 16 December 2024, "Europe's Choice: Policies for Growth and Resilience" - Click Here to Read
Source: EU Commission Performance Scorecard, 2019 Edition - Click Here to Read
Source: UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement - Click Here to Read

Caller 3 (John in North Yorkshire) - “OK, a caller did say unelected bureaucrats. A Euro MP is elected and they're certainly not bureaucrats”

FALSE – Though it is true that MEPs are elected and are not considered bureaucrats, the previous caller was referring to the EU Commission who “run” the EU, who are indeed both unelected and bureaucrats. See the answer to statement 8 above for more details and source material.