Sunak's office labels UK as EU country by mistake on social media

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Aug 2023 00:24

The office of Rishi Sunak mistakenly referred to the country as part of the European Union in a social media post.

EU President Ursula Von Der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during Von der Leyen's visit to the UK in February 2023 (AP)

According to UK media on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office accidentally published an online post in which it referred to the United Kingdom as a current part of the European Union.

Sunak's office's account on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) included numerous posts listing contributions made by the UK government in artificial intelligence (AI), according to the Express Daily, adding that a later deleted post claimed the UK had twice as many AI companies as "any other EU country." According to the article, the post featured a photograph with the same caption.

The post was edited and reposted reading "UK is home to twice as many AI companies as any EU country," according to Express.

The BBC posted an image of the original post as well as the updated one.

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The original post of the PM's office( left) and the updated post (right) (BBC)

In 2016, 51.8% of UK voters decided to withdraw from the EU, while 48.1% chose to stay in the bloc. The country left the EU on January 31, 2020, after 47 years.

In July, a YouGov poll demonstrated that 63% believe Brexit to be more of a failure than a success and 51% would vote to rejoin the EU. Only 32% would stick with the decision to remain out of the bloc.

12% said Brexit was a success and 18% stated it was neither a success nor a failure.

The poll further demonstrated that around 70% believe that the UK government is handling Brexit badly.

Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said on Newsnight recently that the UK had not “benefitted from Brexit economically” and that it deterred businesses from investing in the country.

In May, a YouGov poll revealed that the majority of UK citizens believe that Brexit was unsuccessful.

Only 9% of respondents to the survey said leaving the EU back in January 2020 was a success while 75% of 'Leave' voters agreed with the view of Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP, that the UK government is to blame for the failure.

Further examination of the results reveals that 89% of 'Remainers' believed that the policy failed while 'Leavers' sentiments were split, as 37% agreed with the majority of 'Remainers', 35% were neutral, and 20% considered the policy to be a success.

56% of those who considered Brexit a failure also said it was "always going to be a failure."

Ever since Britain left the European Union, customs delays and bureaucratic setbacks have taken a toll on British firms, who have been moving business over to Europe.