Tory MP says voters will ‘go bananas’ if billions more added to EU divorce bill
2 min read
Voters will go “absolutely spare” if the Government pledge billions to the European Union as part of its divorce settlement, an influential Tory backbencher has warned.
Robert Halfon’s comments come as Theresa May prepares to meet with her Brexit 'war cabinet' to try and agree a sum to offer Brussels.
The Cabinet is reportedly expected to agree to a further £20bn on top of the £20bn already offered to the bloc as part of her Florence speech in September.
Ministers are attempting to hammer out conditional agreement on the figure ahead of December's European Council meeting, where the UK hopes talks can progress to trade.
However the backbencher suggested the Government would be unable to justify a “huge” commitment of £40bn - £50bn to Brussels at a time when education, health and housing are increasingly squeezed.
“Well we’ve just been talking about budget constraints, and the difficulty the Chancellor has in public spending, and if we start saying that we’re going to give 40 to 50 billion to the EU, I think the public will go bananas, absolutely spare,” he told the BBC’s Westminster Hour.
“I voted Remain because I believe in alliances of democracies in an uncertain world, but we voted to leave, the public want to leave, and I cannot believe that the public would accept such a huge amount when we need money for our schools, our hospitals, our housing, and many other things.
“So I think that is going to be very difficult if it is going to be that sum, amount of money."
The Exit and Trade (Strategy and Negotiations) sub-committee, who are due to meet this afternoon, includes key pro-Leave Cabinet members such as Michael Gove, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson.
Mr Halfon added that the Government should strive to be “radical” on its spending at home, as Philip Hammond prepares to lay out his budget on Wednesday.
“I think [the Chancellor] has set the direction of travel which is good but I do think it needs to be a radical Budget, it needs to be very radical on skills, it needs to be radical on housing, it needs to be radical on the cost of living, on addressing social injustice and on the NHS.”
The Exit and Trade (Strategy and Negotiations) sub-committee, who are due to meet this afternoon, includes key pro-Leave Cabinet members such as Michael Gove, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
