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Agence France-Presse

Brexiteers and europhiles reacted angrily to reports on Wednesday that Britain will pay up to €55 billion (US$63 billion) to leave the European Union, putting pressure on British negotiators before key talks.
London and Brussels have agreed that Britain will pay between €45 billion and €55 billion, according to The Daily Telegraph.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier refused to confirm any reports, calling them “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,” he told a security conference in Berlin.
Pro-Brexit supporters reacted with anger to the reports, with leading campaigner Nigel Farage calling the reported figure “utterly unacceptable”.

“For a sum of this magnitude to be agreed in return for nothing more than a promise of a decent settlement on trade represents a complete and total sell-out,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile, pro-EU Labour lawmaker Chuka Umunna said the government’s apparent climbdown dispelled pro-Brexit campaign claims.
“This is a whopping great symbol for the impossibility on delivering Brexit on the terms it was sold to the British people,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Investors were more optimistic that the reports heralded a breakthrough, sending the pound 0.5 per cent higher against the dollar – a two-month high.
The newspapers said negotiators, led on the British side by Olly Robbins, reached the understanding at meetings in Brussels last week.
An agreement would be a breakthrough as Britain prepares for an EU summit in December where it is hoping to start the next phase of talks on future trade ties with the EU.
It would leave two major areas on which the two sides still do not agree – expatriate citizens’ rights after Brexit and the future of the Irish border.
Irish deputy PM quits, averting government collapse ahead of crunch Brexit talks
One key area of contention is whether the 3.2 million EU citizens living in Britain will continue to be allowed to appeal to the European Court of Justice or whether their rights will be governed by British courts, as London insists.
So far both sides have avoided publicly declaring a clear-cut number for what Britain owes the rest of the EU.
Prime Minister Theresa May had offered to cover Britain’s contributions to its budget in 2019 and 2020 – a total of around €20 billion. That pledge was reportedly doubled to €40 billion at a meeting in London last week.
The Telegraph quoted an EU source with knowledge of the talks said the text of the financial agreement would allow a “low figure” to be generated for the British public but would also give the EU the certainty it is looking for.

Asked about the reports, a spokesman for Britain’s Department for Exiting the European Union said “intensive talks” are taking place in Brussels this week, and did not address the divorce bill directly.
The European Commission declined to comment.
Asked about the reports, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, a Brexit supporter, told BBC radio: “We are paying the EU almost £10 billion (US$13.3 billion) a year net anyway.
“We don’t want to walk away on bad terms,” he said.


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Brexit

Anger in UK over reported US$50 billion Brexit ‘divorce’ bill

A painting by British artist Banksy. Photo: AFP

European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier attends the Berlin Security Conference on European Security and Defence in Berlin, Germany, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Britain's Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling leaves 10 Downing Street, London, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

FILE PHOTO: Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage leaves television studios in central London, Britain June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

Labour MP Chuka Umunna introduces Britain's former ambassador to the EU and Article 50 author, John Kerr, prior to his speech at an event hosted by the pro-EU Open Britain, in central London on November 10, 2017. The former British ambassador to the European Union who helped author Article 50, the EU's legal mechanism for withdrawal, insisted on November 10, that the process can still be reversed. / AFP PHOTO / Tolga AKMEN

Brexit gives London’s first-time home buyers a lift but investors aren’t celebrating

London house prices are now growing more slowly than in any other region in the country for the first time in 10 years. Photo: AFP

A British one pound sterling coin, a one euro coin and a US quarter dollar coin are arranged and photographed in central London on October 5, 2017. The British pound was under pressure on October 5, 2017, falling against the euro and the dollar, due to renewed political uncertainty in the United Kingdom after Prime Minister Theresa May's speech at the Conservative Party annual conference. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel SORABJI

A pedestrian walks in view of residential flats in London, U.K., on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. U.K. house prices are "virtually at a standstill" as consumers contend with a squeeze on living standards, Rightmove Plc said. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Brexit fails to dampen Asian hunger for prime London real estate

A row of red brick apartments in Mayfair – a prime target for Asian buyers. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Apartment buildings are backdropped by skyscrapers of banks at Canary Wharf in London, Britain October 30, 2015. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause/File Photo

Estate agents boards are lined up outside houses in south London, Britain June 3, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo

Brexit leader Nigel Farage urges Germans to lead revolt against EU

Nigel Farage, ex-leader of Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) and European Parliament member Beatrix von Storch talk after a press conference of the Germany's far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party in Berlin, Germany, September 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters

epa06192339 Nigel Farage (L), British Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and Beatrix von Storch, deputy of Germany's right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, attend a press conference of the AfD in Berlin, Germany, 08 September 2017. AfD is campaigning for the German general elections to be held on 24 September 2017. Slogan in background reads: 'We for Germany.' EPA-EFE/FILIP SINGER

epa06192357 Nigel Farage, British Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), gestures while speaking at a news conference of Germany's right-wing populist 'Alternative for Germany' (AfD) in Berlin, Germany, 08 September 2017. AfD is campaigning for the German general elections to be held on 24 September 2017. EPA-EFE/FILIP SINGER

Brexit was ‘a stupid decision’ but it would be arrogant to intervene, EU official declares

‘The only people who can reverse it would be the British people and I am not a dreamer’

Anti-Brexit activist Drew Galdron, who is an impersonator of British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, takes part in a demonstration in front of the European institutions in Brussels on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Britain’s economy is already a disaster...Brexit is the final nail in the coffin

The shock that follows Britain’s Brexit break in 2019 could be the biggest risk to the economy this century. Photo: AFP

Boris Johnson, U.K. foreign secretary, leaves following a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, U.K., on Monday, June 12, 2017. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of her new cabinet on Monday, before hearing first-hand the anger of Tory members of Parliament who blame her for the catastrophic election campaign that cost the Conservatives their parliamentary majority. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

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But investors are optimistic the reports heralded a breakthrough, sending the pound to a two-month high against the US dollar


Anger in UK over reported US$50 billion Brexit ‘divorce’ bill

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}But investors are optimistic the reports heralded a breakthrough, sending the pound to a two-month high against the US dollar

But investors are optimistic the reports heralded a breakthrough, sending the pound to a two-month high against the US dollar