An honourable Brexit

To The Independent

The £39bn we have committed to pay to the EU upon our exit is not a gratuity or a divorce payment. It represents a legal liability.

It represents historic infrastructure commitments and liabilities entered into by our nation that are to be completed by 2030. It represents the remaining one year and nine months of the seven-year budget we committed to pay in 2014. It represents liabilities to contribute towards pensions to public servants who represented our nation within the EU (Mr Farage included!). It represents our contribution to joint research and development projects (to renege on these would decimate the UK’S science and research community).

The list of legally binding liabilities goes on. The calculation of all these liabilities amounts to an estimated £87bn at our exit from Europe in March 2019. However, the EU will pay back to the UK £48bn – this includes the refund of the UK’S share of the European Central Bank. This means that the UK’S liabilities are reduced to an estimated £39bn.

People and politicians suggesting that we can walk away from these commitments are once again deceiving the people they deceived during the Brexit campaign.

We cannot walk away from these commitments and liabilities; to do so would break international law. It would also trash our nation as a centre of secure and honourable financial services. Our international credit rating would go into free fall. But most importantly, we would never be able to hold our heads up again in the global community.

For God’s sake, if we must act with madness, let us at least act with honour and dignity as a nation. Martin Deighton, Woodbridge