Osborne is ‘too gloomy’ about Brexit, says his former aide

GEORGE OSBORNE is “too gloomy” about the progress being made by the Government on Brexit, his former aide has said.

Rupert Harrison, who served as Mr Osborne’s chief of staff when he was chancellor, insisted that once the “dust settles” the “outlines of the UK position are pretty clear”.

It came after an editorial in the London Evening Standard, edited by Mr Osborne, suggested that little progress has been made on key aspects of Brexit.

Britain will have to “cough up” a £36 billion Brexit divorce bill if it wants to conduct talks on its future deal with the EU, the editorial said.

It said: “The sensible thing for the Prime Minister to have done would have been to say: ‘I never made these stupid claims we’d get money back; I’m just settling the bills everyone knew we’d have to pay if we left’.

“Instead, Downing Street dug itself into a new hole by claiming that the £36 billion bill being talked about over the weekend was ‘inaccurate speculation’ – when the truth is the opposite. But the inability of our leadership to think more than one step ahead shouldn’t obscure the fact that a deal on the money will be done, and we will cough up.”

Mr Harrison, who is now a managing director at global fund manager Blackrock, responded on Twitter: “My old boss [is] part of [the] consensus that is too gloomy on Brexit progress – once dust settles we will see outlines of UK position are pretty clear.”

He added: “What I do take issue with at the moment is this over the top critique of everything the UK does – mistakes poor comms for lack of progress.”

The Sunday Telegraph disclosed at the weekend that ministers are considering paying a £36 billion Brexit divorce bill in a bid to break the deadlock in negotiations.

The scale of the divorce bill has infuriated eurosceptic Cabinet ministers and Tory MPS, many of whom believe that Britain is under no legal obligation to pay anything when it leaves the EU.

Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told MPS that European leaders can “go whistle” if they expect Britain to pay an “exorbitant” divorce bill.