The bumper bill will still leave the UK with a whopping £26.6 billion to pay under the terms of the withdrawal agreement, the Commission says. It will swell the bloc’s coffers at a time when the UK and other European nations are battling rising inflation and a cost-of-living crisis. Brussels’ calculation for this year’s payout is almost £3 billion higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. Costs were expected to rise due to the weakening of the pound against the euro, in which the settlement is paid. The Treasury puts the final tally of the divorce bill at £35bn to £39bn, while the Commission has put it slightly higher at £41bn. Agreed in 2019, it covers money the UK had already committed to EU programs as a member, plus the pensions of British officials. However, ministers confirmed that the cash is not ring-fenced and goes into the bloc’s general budget, meaning Eurocrats can use it however they like. It comes amid an ongoing cabinet row that could derail efforts to break free from EU laws over the next decade.
‘Major infighting’ over Brexit bureaucracy
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunity minister, is pushing for Brussels red tape to be scrapped by June 23, 2026, which will be the 10th anniversary of the referendum. Discussions are underway to introduce “sunset clauses” into the bill – which would set a deadline for EU law to expire – with various dates under consideration. As well as the 10th anniversary of the referendum, another is 31 January 2030, which would mark a decade since Britain left the EU. But after a push from the cabinet, Brexiteers now fear plans for a hard deadline will be weakened. “There is a big internal row on the Brexit Opportunities Bill about sunset clauses,” a government source said. “The Treasury is whining and saying we have to keep the plethora of EU legislation, especially on taxation. BEIS and Defra say that we cannot repeal secondary legislation. It is possible that Jacob will still win, but there is opposition in the Cabinet, he is losing the battle.” Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, is understood to be ‘not happy about it at all’, with one source adding: ‘She wants to scrap it all, forcing civil servants across government to look at it all before a certain year . otherwise it is deleted from the statute book”.
The “confusion” will cost businesses
The Brexit Opportunities Bill, aimed at making it easier to remove EU laws from the statute book, will be published later this year. There are around 20,000 such pieces of legislation, according to estimates from the House of Commons library. Earlier this month, George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, wrote to Mr Rees-Mogg to say that “messing around” with some rules would mean extra costs for businesses and a waste of public servants’ time. A decision is expected immediately, with a Whitehall source insisting the Prime Minister is “very supportive” of setting a deadline as soon as possible. “Some departments are more obstructive than others,” the source said.
