May hopes to keep UK’s €50bn EU divorce bill secret
BRITISH PM Theresa May is hoping to keep details of the UK’s EU divorce bill a secret until after the Conservative Party conference – to avoid a damaging revolt by Brexit supporters.
The Mail on Sunday understands Mrs May has been advised that Britain is likely to have to fork out up to €50bn – £46bn at current exchange rates – as the only way to break the deadlock of the Brexit talks.
Mrs May is desperately clinging to her political career since her decision to hold a disastrous early election – after which she only barely managed to cobble together a shaky coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party.
But anticipating a backlash from her party’s anti-EU wing, she hopes to wait for the Tories’ Manchester conference to conclude on October 4 before announcing the details. That would give her just two weeks before a critical summit takes place at which the EU will determine whether enough progress has been made on agreeing the divorce bill to let trade talks start.
It came as Mrs May last night urged rebels in her party not to obstruct the EU Withdrawal Bill – which will pave the way for Brexit – when it starts its progress through the House of Commons this week. She described it as ‘the single most important step we can take to prevent a cliff-edge for people and businesses.’ She added: ‘We’ve had frank negotiations with the Commission, and we’ve travelled the globe to establish the trading relationships of the future. Now it is time for parliament to play its part’.
Mrs May is desperate for the conference to act as a springboard for her to reassert her authority over a party still bruised by June’s election disaster. She hopes to ‘sell’ the deal to her restive backbenchers – some of whom think the UK should not pay any divorce money to Brussels – by arguing that agreeing to the higher figure would ‘only’ mean writing an annual cheque for £15bn or so over a three-year transition period following Britain’s departure in March 2019, just £7bn more per year than Britain’s current net contribution to the EU.