David Davis hits back after EU hikes ludicrous Brexit divorce bill to €100 BILLION and says Britain will not pay up
Brexit Secretary warned Brussels the UK did not recognise the figure – which could include post-Brexit farming payments
DAVID Davis has hit back at the EU after reports suggest the ludicrous Brexit divorce bill has been hiked to a whopping €100billion.
The Brexit Secretary warned Brussels the UK did not recognise the new figure – which supposedly includes post-Brexit farming payments – and again said Britain will not pay up to quit the bloc.
Europe has repeatedly said the Government will have to stump up a whopping sum just to kick-start the exit process and cover the cost of existing commitments.
The number suggested has been around the €60billion mark, but added demands by the EU could send the figure soaring, according to the .
After pressure from countries like France, Britain could now receive calls to contribute to farming subsidies even after we leave, and we may be blocked from obtaining a share of EU assets.
But Mr Davis was adamant this would never happen, telling Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain: “We’ll not be paying €100billion.
“What we’ve got to do is discuss in detail what the rights and obligations are.”
He added: “It was €50billion at one point, €60billion, €100billion, we have not seen a number.
“We have said we will meet our international obligations, but there will be our international obligations including assets and liabilities and there will be the ones that are correct in law, not just the ones the Commission want.”
Pressed on reports that the eventual divorce figure could reach up to 100 billion euro, he said: “We will not be paying 100 billion.”
And speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, he said: “In the walkaway circumstance, there is nothing to be paid.
“Nobody is looking for that outcome, that’s the important point to be made. I don’t want people listening to this programme to leave thinking this is what we want to do – we don’t.
“We want a deal, we think we can get a deal and we will get a deal that is beneficial to everybody.”
He said the European Commission could not set a “divorce deal” figure and dismissed as “laughable” reports Theresa May would be barred from talks with her counterparts.
He was responding to a report the EU will not allow her to negotiate Brexit directly with her European counterparts.
According to The Times the Prime Minister would be prevented from joining the divorce discussions at future EU heads of government meetings.
The only person Mrs May will be allowed to hold talks with will be the European Commission’s lead Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said.
Such a move would run contrary to Mrs May’s claim that she would be negotiating directly on the terms of Brexit with fellow European leaders.
But Mr Davis told the programme: “The decisions in this exercise at the end of the day are taken in Council – that’s a gathering of all the leaders of the European Union – and, frankly, until the day we leave, we are full members of the Union, we have every right to attend every Council and we will exercise our right.
“Just as we are obeying the laws of the Union, exactly to the letter, we are also going to expect our rights.
“The idea that somehow one side of the negotiation can dictate how the other side runs a negotiation is laughable.
“This is an exercise in trying to shape public opinion and trying to pressurise us – it won’t work.”
It comes as Mr Barnier gets ready to unveil his recommendations for the upcoming talks, based on guidelines agreed on at last weekend’s summit of the remaining 27 EU leaders.
Last night Mrs May warned bitchy EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker he is about to discover she is “a bloody difficult woman”.
Her warning, using the description of her coined by former cabinet colleague Ken Clarke, came as Scots Tory boss Ruth Davidson also ratcheted the blazing row with the Brussels boss by suggesting he is a dishonest drunkard.
A wave of senior Conservatives piled into Mr Juncker yesterday, revealing how seething they still are over his bid to smear the PM’s Brexit negotiation plan by leaking lurid claims of a heated No10 dinner last week.
One of the EU Commission president’s aides continued the spin war against Mrs May yesterday to claim her team are “ignorant of how Brussels works”.
But the Tory leader hit back to insist the Brussels briefings proved the EU exit talks will be tough, but she is ready for the battle.
Mrs May said: “During the Conservative Party leadership campaign, I was described by one of my colleagues as a bloody difficult woman.
“And I said at the time the next person to find that out will be Jean-Claude Juncker.”