Senior ministers have agreed to offer more money to Brussels in Brexit negotiations, but only as part of a final deal on leaving the EU, a government source said yesterday.
Leading eurosceptics were among ministers who signed off on the idea at a Cabinet sub-committee meeting late on Monday in a bid to move the withdrawal negotiations onto trade.
The source said “no numbers” were discussed, and stressed that the agreement to up the financial offer was dependent on a wider deal on future relations being struck.
A Downing Street source said: “It remains our position that nothing’s agreed until everything’s agreed in negotiations with the EU. The UK and the EU should step forward together.”
Britain wants EU leaders meeting in December to agree that “sufficient progress” has been made on the financial settlement, the issue of Ireland and EU citizens’ rights, to move the talks onto a future EU-UK trade deal.
Prime Minister Theresa May has promised that no European Union member state would have to pay more because of Britain’s exit.
This would suggest Britain will continue its payments under the current budget cycle, for around two years after Brexit in March 2019 — about 20bn euros.
British media reports suggest the government could double this to 40bn euros — although that would still fall short of EU estimates of around 60bn euros.
May has to tread carefully, as there is strong opposition from her backbench Conservative MPs to handing over a large sum, even if Brussels says the money is simply Britain’s share of four decades of EU membership.
Former Conservative minister Robert Halfon said the public would go “bananas” if Britain committed huge sums at a time of tightened public spending.
Former Brexit minister David Jones, who left May’s Cabinet in the summer, confirmed at a conference in London yesterday that the new financial offer would be linked to moving the talks forward.
“As I understand it, it will be made absolutely clear by the government that the payment of any further sums of that nature will be subject to there being an agreement as to our future relationship,” he said.
Jones, a strong supporter of Brexit, said the talks should be suspended unless Brussels gives ground. “We are arriving at the point where the EU is not really negotiating seriously and we should therefore suspend our participation in the negotiations and tell them, when you are willing to talk sensibly then we’ll come back,” he said.
Speaking at the same conference, Brexit Secretary David Davis repeated that Britain was planning for “every eventuality” but said he expected the two sides to reach a deal.
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Brexit Minister) David Davis delivers a keynote speech at a conference hosted by the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, entitled u201cDeal or No Dealu201d, in London, yesterday.
