DAVID DAVIS ‘SILLY’ EU WON’T GET £50BN FROM BRITAIN
DAVID Davis yesterday dismissed as “nonsense” claims that the Government has secretly agreed Britain will pay Brussels a Brexit bill of up to £50billion.
Reports yesterday suggested Theresa May would approve a deal under which we would pay between £7billion and £17billion a year for three years after Brexit.
Big direct payments would end in time for the 2022 election.
It was claimed the plan would be kept under wraps until after next month’s Tory conference, to avoid aggravating Eurosceptics.
And the previously envisaged final bill of up to £30billion was expected to rise by £20billion because Mrs May’s snap election left her weakened at the talks table.
It came as the war of words with Eurocrats deepened about the process to negotiate Britain’s exit from the EU, with Brexit Secretary Mr Davis saying Brussels would look “silly” if it kept denying no progress was being made in talks.
He insisted the idea of Britain paying £50billion was “nonsense”, adding that Britain was systematically going through the EU’s financial demands “line by line” like a hotel bill, and the EU was “finding it difficult”.
He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr: “Money is incredibly important to them. It’s the thing that frightens them most.”
He said Britain may continue some minor payments after Brexit but the era of big handouts was ending.
Asked about claims Britain could leave and owe nothing, he said that although there was “no enforceable” legal basis to pay, Britain would meet its obligations if they could be proved to exist, even if they were moral or political rather than legal.
The best way to a smooth exit was an “amicable and negotiated” deal, he added.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also weighed in, saying some sums he had seen quoted about what Britain should pay seemed “very, very extravagant”. The UK would honour only obligations “that are serious and can be validated in law”.
Britain’s “divorce” payment is one issue the EU says must be largely settled before talks can continue on trade.
Insisting he would not let Britain be bullied, Mr Davis said: “They have set this up to try to create pressure on us on money. I think it looked a bit silly, because there plainly were things that we had achieved.”
Meanwhile his EU opposite number Michel Barnier courted criticism at the weekend by saying: “There are extremely serious consequences of leaving the single market and it hasn’t been explained to the British people. We intend to teach people what leaving the single market means.”
The Government is expected to publish on Wednesday details of how Britain might cooperate on EU science programmes.
THE Brexit vote was a heroic rebellion by the British people against a rotten, alien empire addicted to extravagance and power. It is a rich irony that since the referendum, the EU has fully justified the case for withdrawal with its mix of extortion and intransigence. Leave campaigners always argued that the Brussels machine is a nest of money-grasping, undemocratic bullies determined to punish anyone who dares to challenge its ideology.
Now the EU has graphically proved the point. Its authoritarian instincts are reflected in its current obscene demand for a £92billion so-called “divorce” payment from Britain as the price of our departure. So stubborn is the Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier that he refuses even to consider talks about a trade agreement until this colossal bill is met.
For months, the ministers rightly dismissed the EU’s claim as absurd. But now there are alarming signs that Theresa May’s Government is cracking in the face of Brussels’ dogmatic inflexibility.
According to reports yesterday, the Prime Minister is set to approve a settlement that could be as high as £50billion. Downing Street argued yesterday that the move is needed to “kickstart trade talks”, but Britain’s negotiating team wants to keep the details of the offer secret until after Mrs May’s speech to the Tory conference in October.
IN AND of itself this shows how toxic the retreat could be. Such a climbdown would dismay the public, cost the taxpayer a fortune and wreck our negotiating strategy. The entire point of Brexit is that it should herald a process of national renewal. But if our Government starts by caving in to Brussels at the first hurdle, we will endure only humiliation.
This weekend, Theresa May warned Europhile MPs in her own party against revolting against Brexit legislation. She was correct to do so, for attempts to obstruct such measures amount to a betrayal of democracy. But if she is in the mood to play tough, the Prime Minister would do even better to stand up to Brussels.
The bill from there is completely unjustifiable on any ethical or legal basis. In effect it amounts to little more than crude blackmail. The £92billion figure was simply plucked out of the air to meet the twin goals of punishing Britain and filling the financial black hole left by our departure.
It is a telling illustration of the EU’s warped priorities that Barnier’s team has made the question of money its absolute priority rather than issues such as trade, business or immigration, which all matter far more to the livelihoods of millions of Britons and Europeans.
That is because the EU is interested only in the protection of its sclerotic, expensive bureaucracy. Its real concern is the maintenance of its own perks, privileges and politically correct posturing, not long-term economic growth or the defence of European civilisation.
This is an organisation so vain that it spends more than £500million a year on its own unwanted diplomatic service, based in 138 delegations overseas including Papua New Guinea and Barbados.
Just as absurdly, as part of its mammoth “divorce” demand, the EU revealed last week that it expects Britain to go on subsidising its £6billion green infrastructure programme and its £12billion foreign aid budget, including long-term loans to Africa and Ukraine.
In any case, the EU’s financial figures are not credible given the notorious unreliability of its accounts. Only two years ago, Brussels was forced to admit that £675million of public money had been directly lost through fraud.
Moreover, the whole concept of a “divorce” from Brussels is bogus. We did not marry the EU. On the contrary, we joined what we were told by the politicians was a free trade association.
Now the rules, fees and membership have changed so dramatically we want to leave. We should be able to do so amicably without incurring brutal fines.
BUT the problem is not just about money. If the financial capitulation is enacted in October, then Britain will lose all leverage in the rest of the negotiations, especially on trade.
At the moment we have a tremendous advantage. The EU’s desperation for our cash puts us in an immensely strong position to achieve a deal that suits our national needs. But if our Government feebly pays the bill before anything else is agreed then our prime asset will be lost.
Emboldened by our pusillanimity, the EU can dictate terms. That is why it is so essential that any payment is part of a wider, final settlement.
In truth, we will have no obligations to the EU once we leave. Based on our past contributions and our share of EU assets, it could be argued that Brussels owes us more than £50billion.
A gesture from the UK of about £10billion might just be acceptable to oil the wheels of the trade negotiations but anything much higher would be an outrage.
That is certainly what the British people believe. One recent poll found that 72 per cent of the public opposed the idea of paying above £30billion, with only 11 per cent in favour.
Theresa May was gravely damaged by her mishandling of the election campaign. Further submission to Brussels would be a disaster.
The only way she can begin to restore her authority is fighting for Britain.
‘The EU’s divorce bill has no legal basis’