May to pay ¤ 40bn Brexit divorce bill

London, Nov. 21: Theresa May’s Cabinet is prepared to offer more money to EU to break the deadlock in Brexit talks, but only as part of a final deal on leaving the EU, a government source said Tuesday.

A crunch meeting of the Prime Minister’s new Brexit sub- committee, set up to discuss the government’s strategy for critical negotiations, agreed to a calculation of the divorce bill that would result in a larger payment.

Though sources said that “no numbers” were discussed, and stressed that the agreement to up the financial offer was dependent on a wider deal on future relations being struck, the Cabinet’s in principle agreement would suggest Britain will continue its payments under the current budget cycle, for around two years after Brexit in March 2019 — about 20 billion euros ($ 23.5 billion).

British media reports suggest the government could double this to 40 billion euros — although that would still fall short of EU estimates of around 60 billion euros.

Britain wants EU leaders meeting in December to agree that “sufficient progress” has been made on the financial settlement, the issue of Ireland and EU citizens’ rights, to move the talks onto a future EU- UK trade deal.

Prime Minister Theresa May has promised that no EU member state would have to pay more because of Britain’s exit.

Ms May has to tread carefully, as there is strong opposition from her backbench Conservative MPs to handing over a large sum. Former Conservative minister Robert Halfon said the public would go “bananas” if Britain committed huge sums at a time of tightened public spending.