Theresa May vows Britain will not pay multi-billion EU divorce bill as Boris Johnson says she’ll get a great deal like Margaret Thatcher
THERESA May told EU leaders to forget demands for a multi-billion divorce bill saying it wasn't what "people voted for".
Speaking at a Brussels summit, the PM declared: "Boris was clear and I am clear, when people voted on June 23 for us to leave the European Union they voted for us in the future not to pay huge sums of money to the EU every year, and of course when we leave the EU that will be the case."
She backed Boris Johnson who also shrugged off calls for Britain to cough up £50billion when we quit the EU.
The Foreign Secretary insisted he was confident of Mrs May repeating Maggie Thatcher's famous deal at Fontainebleau in 1984 when she negotiated a rebate for Britain.
He said it was "not reasonable" for Britain to keep making "vast budget payments" once it has left the EU.
Their comments follow 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.
But 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.
Questioned over her negotiating stance Mrs May replied: "There was only ever one Margaret Thatcher."
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Reports suggested Britain could be liable for a £50bn plus divorce bill that EU chiefs - including chief Brexit negoiator Michel Barnier - 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 PM 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."
Meanwhile a Danish Foreign minister claimed last night it would take Britain 15 years to thrash out a trade deal.
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said: “You have to find a solution and we will find a solution.
“The question is, can we do it in two years or will we take 15 years? We don’t know.”
But the PM insisted the job should be done in two.
Speaking at a press conference, she said: “The treaty sets out, when a country is leaving the European Union, that the process, which as Article 50 sets out, is for the withdrawal but also setting the framework for the future relationship actually should take the two years.
“That is the timetable that we’re working to and that’s the timetable the European Union is working to.”