Battle over £50bn EU divorce cash ‘will be gory’

BRITAIN faces a ‘gory’ showdown with Brussels over demands for a £50billion Brexit divorce payment, the country’s former ambassador to the EU claimed yesterday.

Sir Ivan Rogers, who quit last month with an attack on the Government’s strategy, said many EU leaders were gearing up to play ‘hardball’ during Brexit talks.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is said to be tabling demands for a £50billion exit bill before even considering discussions about a new trade deal.

And this week European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the UK would be hit with a ‘very hefty’ bill.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has dismissed this as ‘absurd’ and Tory MP Craig Mackinlay yesterday described it as ‘unhelpful and provocative’.

It came amid signs of a growing split over the issue in Europe.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is understood to be concerned about the EU’s ‘aggressive’ approach, believing it could harm future relations with Britain.

Stephan Mayer, a home affairs spokes-

‘Not very clever and not very fair’

man for her Christian Democrats, said: ‘I am not very happy with the statement of Jean-Claude Juncker. The negotiations have not started yet and it is not very clever and not very fair.’

Sir Ivan said it was inevitable the EU would press for extra cash as it would miss the UK’s massive contribution to the Brussels budget.

He said: ‘We can expect a number of them to think, well, if the British want a future trade deal, and they want some form of transitional arrangement before a future trade deal – all big ifs – then this will come together at some gory European Council in the autumn of 2018 and it will come together with the money equation.’

He told MPs yesterday the UK was in a weak negotiating position and said failure to strike a deal would drive the country off a ‘cliff edge’ into a ‘legal void’.

He said relying on World Trade Organisation rules would be ‘insane’, but acknowledged that failure to agree a trade deal would also be damaging for the EU.

He also suggested striking a trade deal was likely to take at least five years – far beyond the two-year Brexit timetable.