Boris Johnson blasts EU demands for a £50billion divorce bill as ‘unreasonable’ and said he was confident Britain could negotiate a better deal

BORIS Johnson shrugged off EU demands for a £50billion divorce bill branding it “unreasonable” last night.

The Foreign Secretary insisted he was confident of repeating Maggie Thatcher’s famous deal at Fontainebleau in 1984 when she negotiated a rebate for Britain.

He declared it was “not reasonable” for Britain to keep making “vast budget payments” once it has left the EU.

His comments come on the back of an influential report that found the EU’s own laws meant the UK had no “legal obligation” to cough up cash for EU coffers if no deal is struck.

It came as Irish premier Enda Kenny insisted Britain had to be “realistic” about our Brexit bill – but refused to be drawn on the amount.

Speaking on the BBC, Mr Johnson rallied Theresa May to channel Maggie during her Brexit negotiations.

He called on the PM to stand firm over demands from Brussels.

Reports suggested Britain could be liable for a £50bn plus divorce bill that EU chiefs want to settle BEFORE talks begin.

But a Lords committee last week found Mrs May could walk away without paying a penny because under the Vienna Convention, the ending of a treaty “releases the parties from any obligation further to perform the treaty”.

Mr Johnson said: “I think we have illustrious precedent in this matter, I think you can recall the 1984 Fontainebleau summit in which Mrs Thatcher said she wanted her money back and I think that is exactly what we will get.

The cash is intended to fill the black hole left by Britain leaving the EU to cover legally binding budget commitments already made by the UK that will continue after Brexit and pensions for EU officials.

But Mr Johnson told BBC Two’s Brexit: Britain’s Biggest Deal: “It is not reasonable, I don’t think, for the UK having left the EU to continue to make vast budget payments. I think everybody understands that and that’s the reality.”

In a sign of how tough the negotiations could get, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday suggested he would back demands for Britain to pay up.

Arriving at the European Council summit in Brussels, he said: “When you sign on for a contract you commit yourself to participation. And obviously the extent of that level of money will be determined.”

But Brexit Secretary David Davis told the programme he had prepared for “plan B or C” if the UK fails to secure a favourable deal with Brussels during the negotiations on divorce and a future trade agreement.

He has ordered senior ministers to prepare not only for Britain’s “most important peacetime agreement”, but also for “the unlikely scenario that no mutually satisfactory agreement can be reached”.

He added: “What I said to them was they’ve got to do the work. For the so-called plan B or C or whatever it is. It’s not plan A.”

“It’s our responsibility as a government to make preparations for all possible outcomes. We’re going in to a negotiation, we don’t control the whole thing.

“By far and away the highest probability is plan A, or some variant of it, namely a comprehensive free trade deal.”

Mr Davis insisted it was sensible to consider what might happen if an acceptable trade deal was not on offer.

“You contemplate things so that you avoid them or you mitigate them,” he said.

“If you went out on the street today and said to the ordinary member of the public, should the government prepare for all outcomes, they would say of course.”

But he said: “I don’t intend to go down that route. The aim of my department is to deliver plan A.”