PM’s TV dodge over divorce bill

THERESA May repeatedly refused to rule out paying the EU a vast oneoff divorce bill, insisting that Britain will meet its ‘obligations’.

Last night, the Prime Minister dodged the question four times of whether the UK will shell out a huge sum to break from Brussels.

Speaking to Andrew Neil on BBC1, she said the country will not be ‘paying significant sums of money on an annual basis into the EU’. She added: ‘As we look at the negotiations, of course we have to decide what the obligations are.’

But Mrs May would not be pinned down on whether a one-off payment will be necessary.

The EU has suggested Britain faces a £52billion bill for projects we signed off while a member, and to fund pensions for Brussels officials.

But Chancellor Philip Hammond rejected the figure, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday: ‘We simply do not recognise some of the very large numbers that have been bandied about.’

Pushed on whether £52billion was in the ‘ballpark’ she might contemplate, Mrs May said: ‘ I am very clear about what people here in the UK expect, but I am also clear that we are a law-abiding nation, we will meet obligations we have.’

Think-tank Civitas has called for No10 to instead demand compensation from the EU for inefficiency and waste of British funds.