Raab: UK will not pay Brexit bill without a trade deal
New minister in charge of Britain leaving EU issued warning to Brussels, saying responsibility for deal rests on both sides of the English Channel
Britain will only pay its EU divorce bill if the bloc agrees the framework for a future trade deal, the new Brexit secretary warned in an interview published on Sunday.
Dominic Raab, who replaced David Davis after he quit the role earlier this month in protest over the government’s Brexit strategy, said “some conditionality between the two” was needed.
He added that the Article 50 mechanism used to trigger Britain’s imminent exit from the European Union provided for new deal details.
“Article 50 requires, as we negotiate the withdrawal agreement, that there’s a future framework for our new relationship going forward, so the two are linked,” Raab told The Sunday Telegraph. “You can’t have one side fulfilling its side of the bargain and the other side not, or going slow, or failing to commit on its side. So I think we do need to make sure that there’s some conditionality between the two.”
The British government has sent mixed signals so far on the divorce bill.