UK ‘CANNOT SKIP £50BN BREXIT BILL’
Juncker’s warning over EU trade deal
EU President Jean-Claude Juncker has insisted that Britain will have to pay a £50billion settlement if it wants a trade deal after Brexit.
In a hardline message as Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 next week, he said the UK “must honour” its £50billion commitments.
The row over the bill is expected to be the first flashpoint of the Brexit talks and has led to fears negotiations could break down immediately.
Boris Johnson has dubbed the £50billion “unreasonable” and Mrs May has said no deal would be better than a bad deal.
Mr Juncker told the BBC he was not in a “hostile mood” towards Britain and there would be “no punishments”.
He said: “We have to calculate scientifically what the British commitments were, and then the bill has to be paid.
“There will be no sanctions, no punishment, nothing of that kind.”
Mr Juncker dubbed the result of the EU referendum a “failure and a tragedy”.
Pro Brexit Tory MP John Baron saw “no reason” why the £50billion should be paid, but said: “I hope we can have amicable negotiations.”
Mrs May will be absent from a meeting of the EU leaders in Italy today, held to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
WE are sick of Brexit macho talk which, let us be honest, is boring.
We are a great, law-abiding country and will pay what we owe when we leave the EU – so Jean-Claude Juncker should stop playing the silly tough guy from little Luxembourg.
Because if he tries to rip us off, he will spend whatever is left of his career whistling for his man and fighting counter-claims for a share of office blocks in Brussels.
When Theresa May triggers Article 50 next Wednesday, there will be two ways to handle negotiations: the easy way and the hard way.
We prefer the fair, constructive, civilised, easy route. But if anyone is foolish enough to mess with our interests we must make it hard.