Boris Johnson urged the EU to get Brexit talks ‘off the rocks’ today amid claims Theresa May has agreed a deal that could leave Britain paying into Brussels coffers for decades.
The Foreign Secretary demanded movement from the bloc as the Prime Minister faced a backlash over apparently increasing the divorce bill offer to up to £50billion.
The deal is thought to have been signed of by the Cabinet at a lengthy meeting yesterday, after weeks of tense negotiations with the EU.
It could pave the way for a summit of the bloc’s leaders next month to launch trade discussions – although Dublin is still demanding more concessions over the border with Northern Ireland.
Sterling rallied on the news, but there was fury from Brexiteers who accused the PM of ‘selling out’ to Brussels.
Senior Tories told MailOnline there would have to be a Commons vote on handing such sums to the EU – warning ministers could struggle to secure a majority.
A recent poll found that as few as 11 per cent of voters would regard paying more than £30billion as acceptable.
Speaking on a visit to Africa this morning, Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson delivered a message to the EU, saying: ‘Now is the time to get the ship off the rocks.’
He said: ‘We’re hoping very much that the offer the prime minister is able to make at that council will be one that guarantees sufficient progress.’
Theresa May is welcomed by European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker before their meeting at the European Union Commission headquarter in Brussels, on October 21
Speaking on a visit to Ivory Coast today (pictured), Boris Johnson delivered a message to the EU, saying: ‘Now is the time to get the ship off the rocks.’
Speaking to business leaders in Germany today, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the two sides were ‘still working’ on a deal
The reported deal was denounced by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage (pictured on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today) as a ‘sellout’
The true scale of the bill may never be known, as payments will be hidden deep in accounts and only paid when they fall due.
Some elements, such as pensions for Eurocrats, will be ongoing for many decades to come.
Tory grandees suggested they were willing to swallow some ongoing payments to the EU – but insisted they had to be contingent on a trade deal being agreed.
Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC: ‘If there is no trade deal, then my view – and I would think the whole of the party’s view – would be we don’t owe them any money at all.
‘Because if we don’t have that arrangement, than that whole figure that is being bandied around becomes null and void.’
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has previously ruled out any link between the divorce bill and a trade deal, despite Downing Street vowing that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’.
Eurosceptics are reluctant to undermine Mrs May publicly at a key stage in the Brexit process, but they warned that financial commitments would be scrutinised extremely closely.
‘All expenditure of money needs the approval of parilament,’ one former minister said.
Some MPs who backed Remain have said they would also oppose large payments.
In a boost for Mrs May, Brussels sources have hinted that the offer will be enough to persuade the EU to sanction the start of trade talks at a crunch summit next month, provided agreement is also reached on citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland border.
‘The deal on the money is there,’ said one source.
There was agreement in principle on the divorce bill following a private presentation to a Brexit ‘War Cabinet’ by the UK’s top official Oliver Robbins last week.
A three-point package is then said to have been signed off at full Cabinet yesterday.
Two of the reported points – a pledge to keep the Irish border open and approval for a financial settlement topping £40billion – were little different from what had previously been revealed.
But a proposal to resolve concerns over the future rights of EU citizens living in the UK, by permitting the Supreme Court to refer issues up to the European Court of Justice where it felt unqualified to adjudicate, is likely to prove more contentious.
One senior Whitehall source dismissed the ITV report it had been agreed by Cabinet as ‘nonsense’.
Government sources denied a final deal on the money had been struck and stressed that no figures had been discussed with Brussels.
David Davis (pictured tonight in Downing Street) has been working to secure agreement from Brussels that ‘sufficient progress’ has been made on striking a divorce deal
The UK’s improved offer is also contingent on the EU agreeing to a comprehensive trade deal.
A final cash settlement will only be agreed at the end of the process when both sides can see the shape of the future relationship.
The news was denounced by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage as a ‘sellout’.
‘I have always argued that no deal is better than a bad deal,’ he said.
‘Make no mistake about it – 55billion euros to leave the EU is a very, very bad deal.’
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘They owe us money, we morally owe them money.
‘Let’s call it quits. It’s time for us to simply walk away.’
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the two sides were ‘still working’ on an agreement.
Speaking at a security conference, in Berlin today, Mr Barnier described the reports as ‘rumours’.
‘There is a subject on which we are continuing to work – despite the claims or rumours in the press today, that’s the issue of financial engagements,’ Barnier said.
‘We are not going to have 27 (EU members) pay for what was decided by 28, it’s as simple as that. So we want to settle the accounts,’ he said.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, a prominent Leave supporter during the referendum, refused to be drawn on the figures this morning, but insisted the government was merely meeting the UK’s ‘obligations’.
Mr Grayling said the government would not ‘walk away from’ its obligations to the EU.
‘We’ve been very clear that we will meet our obligations as a member of the European Union as we leave,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘We don’t want to walk away on bad terms, we don’t want to walk away from obligations that we built up during our membership.
‘Our goal is to be good friends and good neighbours with the European Union and to trade freely with the European Union, to carry on as friends.’
He added: ‘The price is meeting the obligations that we built up, no more, no less than that.
‘I don’t think people in this country would expect us to just walk away from things we’ve already said we’d pay for.’
Mrs May is hoping the offer will trigger a breakthrough next month when EU leaders gather in Brussels to decide whether ‘sufficient progress’ has been made on divorce issues to allow talks to turn to trade.
But ministers remain concerned about progress on what will happen to the border in Ireland, where Dublin is making increasingly belligerent demands.
A breakthrough on trade talks would ease Tory concern about the size of the divorce bill.
Former international development secretary Priti Patel this week said the PM should have told Brussels to ‘s** off’ rather than pay up.
But former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who was also critical of increasing the offer, last night struck a conciliatory tone, saying: ‘I would be very happy if they get to a point where they have agreed and can get on to trade negotiations.’
It was claimed tonight that the ‘agreement in principle’ had been struck following intensive work by Ollie Robbins (left with Brexit Secretary David Davis), a senior civil servant and Britain’s lead negotiator
Speaking in Australia yesterday, the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox also struck an upbeat note, saying: ‘We believe that we’ve gone far enough to be able to get into this second stage.’
The apparent breakthrough follows a lengthy stalemate in negotiations. EU sources last night claimed the UK had agreed to a formula that could see the final bill hit £53 billion. But British sources suggested the settlement could be below £40 billion.
A final offer on the payment will be presented by the PM during a key lunch with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker next week.
After Mr Juncker and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier consider the offer, EU leaders will then decide whether to give the green light to trade talks at a summit in Brussels on December 14.
Mr Barnier hinted at the breakthrough earlier this week when he said: ‘The moment of truth is approaching.’ In an attempt to obscure the exact size of the bill, British officials are understood to have presented a complex payment method that will ensure the money is not paid off in one large sum.
Although the agreed methodology does not produce a specific figure, British sources last night said that it could result in a final payment in line with the £40billion (€45billion) offer that has been signed off by the Cabinet.
Priti Patel, pictured at the Conservative Party conference in September, urged a tough line with the EU on the divorce bill
Responding to the move, one EU diplomat said: ‘As long as they agree to pay it, it does not matter whether there is a figure attached.’ Another told the Financial Times: ‘They have promised to cover it all, we don’t care what they say their estimate is.’
But a UK source close to the negotiations insisted that ‘nothing has been agreed’ even though the UK team had presented their proposals. They said: ‘These talks are ongoing and the idea that there is a number or an agreement is not right.’
Intense under-the-radar talks will continue between UK and EU officials over the coming days.
Soon after the breakthrough was announced, the pound recovered on currency markets.
Sterling spiked $1.33 against the dollar as traders piled into the currency. It also closed above €1.12 against the euro.