Fury as UK set for post-Brexit £50bn EU cost in ‘slap within the face’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

The UK is about to pay the EU £50billion regardless of Brexit in what has been slammed as a “slap in the face”. New information printed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the UK handed over £3.25billion to Brussels in 2024, suggesting that the entire paid to the EU since Britain left early in 2020 stood at roughly £44billion. In addition, the Government has dedicated to forking out an extra £8billion as a part of the divorce pact.

This means post-Brexit funds are poised to move £50billion. In July 2024, the Treasury’s newest estimate was that the web price of the separation settlement to the UK can be £30.2billion. During the Brexit transition interval, till the tip of 2020, the UK paid into the EU finances nearly as if it had been a member state. Britian additionally obtained funding from EU programmes as if it had been nonetheless a member.

In December 2017, then-Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the UK and Brussels had agreed “the scope of [Britain’s EU] commitments, and methods for valuations and adjustments to those values.”

The invoice is made up of the UK’s contribution to EU annual budgets as much as 2020, the cost of excellent commitments and financing liabilities as much as the tip of 2020.

Frank Furedi, boss of the MCC Brussels think-tank, informed MailOnline that British negotiators have been “taken for a ride”.

Former Conservative Brexit minister David Jones, now of Reform UK, stated: “This is nothing less than a slap in the face to all the hard-working Britons who are currently struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.

“The European Union ought to now not be the recipient of funds from this nation so far as I’m involved.”

Last month, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, claimed that Brexit is partly to blame for high inflation in the UK.

She added that the divorce has made Britain’s economy and productivity “weaker” than initially forecast when the country voted to leave in 2016.

Businesses have faced “growing crimson tape” since Britain left the EU, Ms Reeves also stated, and workers are “now locked out of the roles market in Europe”.

There are “clearly large advantages from rebuilding a few of these relations”, the Chancellor added.