May dismisses ‘pay to play’ access to European markets

THERESA MAY has insisted that Britain will not make substantial payments to the EU for market access after Brexit as she appeared to contradict Philip Hammond.

The Chancellor was asked during a trip to Berlin whether the UK would be prepared to pay for access to the EU markets for City firms. He replied: “We will talk about all of these things.”

However, Downing Street said yesterday that the Prime Minister was clear that “we will not be paying for access” and insisted that the Chancellor “thought he was responding to a general point”.

It came after reports that Germany is preparing to demand “substantial” payments to EU budgets in exchange for market access as part of any trade deal after Brexit.

The suggestion that the UK may need to “pay to play” in Europe after Brexit is likely to anger Eurosceptics, who have repeatedly warned that such payments would be unacceptable.

Mrs May promised last year in a Lancaster House speech that the “days of Britain making vast contributions to the European Union every year will end” after Brexit.

The Prime Minister and Mr Hammond yesterday met senior executives from some of the world’s leading financial institutions to discuss Brexit.

Mr Hammond described the UK’S financial services sector as an “enabler of the real economy across Europe” and warned that attacks on the City after Brexit risked “undermining Europe’s economy”.