Britain’s Brexit divorce bill tops a staggering 40 billion pounds

Britain’s Brexit divorce bill tops a staggering 40.8 billion pounds, and 6.8 billion pounds must be paid by the end of this year.

The final bill was initially believed to have come in at around 35-39 billion pounds to cover the UK’s share of payments for projects and benefits before it left the bloc.

British and EU negotiators battled hard over the potential cost of leaving the EU before a deal was finally sealed in December 2019.

The figure first came to light when Ireland’s member of the court of Auditors, Tony Murphy, told RTE that the costs the UK faces are unlikely to change.

“While the 2020 EU consolidated accounts published by the Commission are as of yet provisional the Court has completed its audit work on these accounts,” he said in a statement.

“Following internal adoption procedures the Court is set to issue an unmodified opinion on the reliability of the 2020 EU consolidated accounts, as we have in previous years. Therefore, for all intent and purposes the figures published by the Commission are definitive,” he added.

The UK is likely to challenge the Brexit divorce bill.

“This is just an accounting estimate, and does not reflect the exact amount the UK is expected to pay to the EU this year. We will publish details on payments to and from the EU made under the financial settlement in the EU finances statement later this year,” a UK government spokesperson told the Guardian on July 9.

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