David Davis will tee up fresh Brexit row by refusing to spell out UK's divorce bill stance in talks
2 min read
David Davis will refuse to tell the EU how much Britain is willing to pay towards its Brexit 'divorce bill' when talks resume next week, it has emerged.
Teeing up a fresh row with Brussels, the Brexit Secretary will not go into any further detail on the size of the payment, despite demands from his EU counterpart Michel Barnier for more clarity.
Mr Barnier tweeted earlier this week that the scale of the divorce bill was one of the "essential" areas to clear up before talks can begin on a future trading relationship.
But Mr Davis' apparent refusal to discuss the bill in detail risks delaying the start of that second phase of negotiations, which are due to kick off in October.
“We are in the season of the Great British Bake Off, aren’t we. So we will make it clear that they have massively overegged their demands,” a source told The Guardian.
“In an ideal world they want to salami-slice us, step by step by step,” they added.
“And on you go, up and up, and there is the bill. That is not going to happen and we are not going to play that game.”
Reports earlier this month suggested the UK was willing to cough up £36bn to settle its obligations, but there has been no official confirmation of that figure.
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