Pay the Brexit bills and we’ll still have £8bn left!

BRITAIN could reap a Brexit dividend of up to £8billion, experts suggested yesterday.

In its annual Green Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned Brexit could have a negative impact on the economy – depending on the trade deal secured with Brussels.

But it also pointed towards a significant potential boost for the public finances. It said if Britain were to leave and cease all contributions overnight, the Government would have £13.4bn extra to spend.

Ministers have suggested many EU-funded programmes such as agriculture payments will probably continue in the short term.

But even after those are subtracted, ministers would still be left with around £8billion extra, the IFS suggested.

Thomas Pope, Research Economist at the IFS said: ‘The current forecasts assumes that when we stop making the EU contribu- tion we will continue to spend all that money elsewhere in the public sector.

‘However, we could replace all the EU funding in the UK and still have about £8bn we could use to reduce the deficit.’

During the referendum campaign, the official Vote Leave group suggested there would be £350million more every week to spend once Britain left the EU, the equivalent of around £18billion a year. A dividend of £8billion would equate to around £150mil- lion a week. Theresa May has indicated that significant contributions will not continue after Brexit.

However, ministers have said spending on individual EU programmes – such as Europol, the policing agency, or research – will carry on. There is also likely to be a Brexit ‘bill’ for future costs such as pensions liabilities.

Senior EU figures have demanded £50billion – a number dismissed as ‘absurd’ by cabinet minister Liam Fox.