Brexit minister & Labour MP trade barbs as taxpayers set to pay EU cash regardless of deal
BREXIT Minister Suella Braverman and Labour MP Pat McFadden got into a heated debate after Ms Braverman admitted the UK is legally bound to pay the £39billion Brexit divorce bill before the future trade deal is agreed.
Speaking before the Brexit Select Committee on Wednesday, Ms Braverman was continually grilled by Mr McFadden about whether MPs will agree on the financial settlement before a trade deal is agreed.
The European Union had refused to move on to trade talks until the UK put forward a financial settlement to cover pension liabilities for EU staff, spending on EU loans and projects, and membership costs during the transition period.
A financial settlement was agreed in December and Prime Minister Theresa May revealed the figure is between £35-£39 billion.
During the debate, the Brexit minister said: “When you say a legal text, assuming the legal vote is affirmative, the legal text underpinning the future framework will be worked on.
“The Prime Minister has made very clear that the offer on the financial settlement is made as part of a broader package relating and in the spirit of our future partnership.
“So, the two will be connected when we vote in October.”
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It does not contain conditionalities
But Ms Braverman admitted there are no conditions in the withdrawal agreement which link the two. She said: “It does not contain conditionalities.”
Mr McFadden asked the questions again and said: “I’m going to try again. This is a factual question. I understand what the political declaration is and will try a third and fourth time.
“Isn’t it the case that the financial settlement that we are going to be asking to vote on in October, we will be asked to vote on that before we have a legal treaty before us on the future relationship.
“Is that factually correct or not?”
In response, Ms Braverman said: “Yes, I mean, I don’t deny that there will be a legal treaty which would be forthcoming on the future framework.”
The debate continued when Mr McFadden said the “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” principle would not apply to the financial settlement as it will be agreed before the future trade framework is agreed.
Ms Braverman cited the “good faith” clause in the divorce agreement and said there will be a renegotiation if there is no agreement on a future framework.
She said: “If there was going to be a change in circumstances whereby those payments were to stop, that would require renegotiating and looking at what’s been agreed when it comes to the financial agreement with the EU.”
Ms Braverman added: “The duty of good faith should not be ignored in this context. It’s more than just words.”
During the debate, ministers said the so-called “backstop” arrangement, keeping the UK closely aligned to EU until the Irish border issue was resolved, should be “time-limited”.