Yahoo Finance Theresa May holds Brexit 'war Cabinet' to clear €40bn divorce offer
Theresa May is holding a Brexit ‘war cabinet’ today with a view to securing an agreement to up the so-called divorce bill offer.
Speculation is running high that Britain’s offer for severing ties with the European Union will be increasing to €40 billion – double a previously quoted figure.
The prime minister is meeting her “inner Cabinet” of senior ministers and trusted advisers to try to get a consensus on what settlement the UK will propose ahead of Friday’s deadline imposed by Europe’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.
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Arch Brexiters Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Liam Fox will take the most convincing – but so will the millions of Leave voters.
The divorce bill has been a major roadblock to pushing ahead toward full talks on trade.
The EU has insisted the UK must talk firm numbers on what it is willing to pay ahead of Brexit day in March 2019 before any substantive discussion can be held on trading arrangements, tariffs and the like.
Other thorny issues such as the Irish border and citizens’ rights have also to be addressed.
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Tory minister Rob Halfon last night warned the public would be outraged if the €40bn figure proved accurate.
He told the BBC’s Westminster Hour: “If we start saying that we’re going to give £40 to £50 billion to the EU, I think the public will go bananas, absolutely spare.
“I cannot believe the public would accept such a huge amount when we need money for our schools, our hospitals, our housing, and many other things. I think that is going to be very difficult if it is going to be that amount of money.”
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Brexit secretary David Davis, as well as the likes of Johnson and Gove, have accepted that the UK will have to pay something to the EU.
Davis – and the prime minister – has promised not to leave any other country out of pocket in the current EU budget period which runs until 2020.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, business secretary Greg Clark said the amount the UK was prepared to offer should be kept private as the UK had to “exercise discipline” in the negotiations.
