Mary Creagh has come up with a brilliant environmental justification for staying in the EU. Apparently we have Brussels to thank for “seals and even dolphins making regular appearances down river… where once it was dangerous to swim or swallow the water, it is now safe for humans and wildlife”. Righto…

Does Creagh’s argument that “the EU played a huge part in these environmental improvements” stack up? Well, the EU’s $100 billion-a-year Emissions Trade Scheme infamously bankrolled a scam allowing Chinese and Indian firms to generate a harmful greenhouse gas called HFC-23, then claim money from European taxpayers to destroy it. The Environmental Investigation Agency called it the “biggest environmental scandal in history”. Even if EU membership means we can drink from the Thames, not sure that makes up for the millions of taxpayer cash blown on a greenhouse gas scam…