As Britain awaits the full extent of Labour's broken promise to not raise taxes in the next Budget, it can be revealed that Brexit saved Chancellor Rachel Reeves's "black hole" from being far worse.
Had the UK remained in the European Union, it would have been the second-largest funder of its £560billion budget for between 2021-24.
According to Facts4EU and CIBUK, in association with GB News, the UK would have had to pay about £88.4billion.
Britain would also be required to contribute additional "off-budget" funds.
It dwarves the Chancellor's "£22billion black hole" by a factor of four and would be required to have to face five times the funding gap she claimed to have inherited.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) issued a report which found almost 70 per cent of the European Union's 2024 spending had been "affected by material error".
A staggering €110billion (£101billion) of the €168billion (£142billion) audited was found to be affected.
Some €82billion (£71billion) was not audited by the EU and part of the funding was British taxpayers' money, while the UK pays back EU contributions nearly five years after Brexit.
Rachel Reeves' black hole could have been far worse if the UK was part of the European Union
| GETTYLooking at the EU's accounts from 2021-24, the UK's continued membership in the Union would have had to pay an overall £221.2billion during that time period.
That is broken down into payments into the official budget of £88.4billion.
It also includes the EU's post-Covid fund of £23billion, the liability for the debt of £70billion.
An estimate of about £39.8billion would also come from future obligations.
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Rachel Reeves current black hole compared to if the UK had stayed in the European Union
|FACTS4U
On top of the stark reality of what the budget could have been had Brexit not been successful, the figures provided do not include carbon and other taxes that the UK would have been subject to.
Former MP Sir John Redwood said this "reveals the huge bills the UK would be paying the EU if we had stayed in".
"The Rachel Reeves black hole would be five times her estimate," he added.
"UK taxes would have to rise in a frightening way.
"We would be lashed to a sinking ship."
Sir John said it would also factor into migrant support.
"There would be more low and no income migrants to support," he said.
"More EU debts to take on and more rules and regulations driving business to the US and Asia."
Sir John said the UK had "dodged a hail of EU financial bullets, including new carbon and other taxes".
"No wonder EU GDP per head has sunk to just half the level of the US whilst the EU is mired in industrial recession," the former MP added.
The revelations come as Ms Reeves admitted she was considering new tax hikes as part of her Autumn Budget.
It was the first time the Chancellor had publicly confirmed tax rises were on the cards - with the Budget set to be delivered on November 26.