INVESTIGATION: The UK has paid Brussels £35 billion in the three years since leaving the EU

It comes as Starmer remains under fire for cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance for all but the poorest pensioners to save money for Rachel Reeves’ upcoming budget.

The Chancellor previously announced a “£22bn black hole” in the UK finances bequeathed to her by the previous Conservative government.

However, the funds given to the EU would exceed Rachel Reeves’ black hole or be enough to pay UK pensioners their Winter Fuel Allowance for the next 25 years.

In a joint investigation by Facts4EU and GB News, the latest declarations of government spending were released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as additional official data from HM Treasury, the National Audit Office and the OBR.

Amongst many troubling facts the analysis uncovered, the UK’s ongoing payments to the EU in Brussels.

According to the ONS and HM Treasury the settlement demanded by the EU “will have a net cost of £30.2 billion to the UK, according to the Treasury’s latest estimate. As of May 2024, net payments of £26.2 billion had been made.”

In the last three years since the end of the ‘Transition Period’ on December 31, 2020, under the ‘Divorce Bill’ and other EU claims, the UK has paid around £35bn to the EU Commission since the UK’s formal exit.

This includes payments for items which were never included in the “net cost of membership.”

Net payments

• Feb 2020 - Dec 2023: £23.8bn

• Jan - May 2024: £2.4bn

• Jun 2024 - 2065: £4.0bn

'Off-budget' EU funds

• EDF 2023: £2.9bn

• ECHR fine 2022: £2.3bn

Total: £35.4bn

[Source: Latest data - Office for National Statistics | H M Treasury | National Audit Office | Office for Budget Responsibility | EU Commission.]

The ONS went on to confirm the UK would still be liable to pay monies to the EU Commission until 2065 stating; “An estimated £4 billion of net payments are expected from June 2024 to 2065, which is an average annual net payment of roughly £95 million.”

This is another 40 years of liabilities and is one of the smallest amounts for which the UK may be liable to the EU.

The figures outlined above are part of what colloquially became known as ‘the Divorce Bill’, first agreed by the Remain-supporting Prime Minister Theresa May.

There was never any legal obligation on the UK to pay the EU anything on exit. Even the Committee of the Remainer House of Lords in their report at the time confirmed this. Nonetheless the EU Commission, represented by its Chief Brexit Negotiator, (and now French Prime Minister), Michel Barnier erroneously claimed it and Theresa May and Ollie Robbins, her civil servant in charge, agreed.

Extraordinarily, the final amount the UK will end up paying to the EU is now known, as the House of Commons Library reported on July 23, 2024: “There is no definitive cost to the settlement. The final cost to the UK will depend on future events such as future exchange rates and EU budgets.”

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Sir John Redwood, former secretary of State commented on the findings stating: “Facts4EU.Org’s research for GB News once again reveals a scandalous truth that most of the media ignores.

“The UK has gone on paying huge sums to the EU three years after we finally left. In the last three years, the UK has foolishly paid the EU more than the Chancellor’s alleged black hole and meekly plans to send the EU more. No wonder we are still short of cash to pay pensioners their heating allowance.

“I urged leaving the EU with no deal and trading on WTO ‘Most-Favoured Nation’ terms to spare use this unacceptably large bill. The treasury should query the invoice and refuse to pay EU fines now we are out.”