UK dismisses 40bn-euro Brexit bill as speculation

Bloomberg

Theresa May’s office dismissed as speculation a report that the UK is prepared to pay a 40 billion-euro ($47 billion) bill to leave the European Union, while leading Brexit supporters pushed back against paying
anything at all.
The figure surfaced in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, which cited three government officials it didn’t identify as saying Britain would offer the sum in a bid to push the discussion toward a future trade deal. On Monday, though, a government official who asked not to be identified talking about issues that haven’t been resolved called it speculation, and leading Brexit supporters in the prime minister’s own party rejected any notion of a payment.
“There is no logic to this figure,” Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker, said on Twitter. “Legally we owe nothing.’’ The Brexit bill is key to unlocking progress in the discussions as time ticks down toward the March 2019 deadline when Britain will depart the bloc, deal or no deal. A third round of talks with EU negotiators is scheduled for later this month, and bill, alongside the border with Ireland and the rights of EU citizens, is one of three issues EU lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, says progress must be made on before talks can move on to discussing future trading relationship.