EU ‘interrogated’ on £90bn divorce bill
BRITISH officials began a line by line ‘interrogation’ of EU demands for a £90billion divorce bill last night, as detailed negotiations finally got under way.
A team of about 100 officials and their EU counterparts sat down in Brussels to start the process of hammering out a deal on key issues. These include the rights of EU citizens currently living in Britain, the Irish border with the UK and the size of the so-called divorce bill.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said negotiators were ‘now getting into the substance of the matter’. Mr Davis caught a train home immediately after the meeting with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, saying it had always been the plan to leave the initial work to officials. He will return to Brussels tomorrow for further talks.
Brussels has drawn up demands totalling €100billion (almost £90billion). Some officials warn the EU will not agree to a trade deal unless Britain pays up, but ministers believe only a fraction of the bill has any legal basis. A Government source said: ‘We are going to go through this line by line and interrogate it.’
The talks came as a former minister warned Britain could face riots if the Government backtracked on Brexit. Tory MP Robert Halfon said: ‘There would be many angry people.’