Plan not to pay Brexit bill ‘would be illegal’

BORIS JOHNSON will have to overrule Government legal advice to keep his promise to withhold the payment of the £39billion Brexit bill in order to get a better deal from the EU.

The favourite to win the Tory leadership contest has threatened to “retain” the financial settlement until the EU has provided “greater clarity” about the future EU-UK trading relationship.

However, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that several Whitehall sources have confirmed that on-record internal legal advice from Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, warns that linking Brexit bill payments to the progress of any trade talks would be illegal.

The advice sets up a potential clash between Mr Johnson and Mr Cox who last week backed the former foreign secretary for the Tory leadership.

There is also the prospect of Parliament ordering the advice be published if Mr Johnson tries to ignore it and withhold the cash.

The Telegraph also understands that in a no-deal scenario, the Government legal advice is clear that the UK would have an obligation to pay up to Europe. The precise extent of those obligations could be disputed, but it would run into “billions”.

It is understood that last November, Dominic Raab, as Brexit secretary, wanted a clause in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill linking the payment of the £39billion bill to a successful outcome of trade talks. Informed sources say Mr Cox rejected this as illegal.

The Attorney General is understood to have argued that this would be in breach of Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties, which stipulates that signatories must not “defeat the object and purpose of a treaty prior to its entry into force”.