Britain still paying the EU: post-Brexit bill now tops £50 billion

It’s been almost five years since Britain left the EU – but the bills from Brussels keep coming.
According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK has already handed over a staggering £44 billion to the European Union since Brexit, with another £8 billion still to pay. That brings the total post-Brexit price tag to more than £50 billion – a figure many critics say feels like a “slap in the face” for British taxpayers.

Billions still flowing to Brussels

The latest data shows that the UK transferred £3.25 billion to the EU last year alone. Most of that money comes from the Withdrawal Agreement, the financial settlement negotiated when Britain officially left the bloc in 2020.

The original estimate for the so-called ‘divorce bill’ was between £35 billion and £39 billion, but that figure has since ballooned well beyond expectations. The payments cover Britain’s share of EU commitments made before it left – such as pensions, grants and projects that were still being funded.

Critics say the Government is failing to stand up for British taxpayers. Former Brexit minister David Jones, now with the Reform UK party, said to the Daily Mail:

“This is nothing less than a slap in the face to every hard-working Briton who’s already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis. The EU shouldn’t be getting another penny from us.”

Jones added that Britain was ‘so desperate to get out’ of the bloc that it ended up agreeing to ‘a very bad deal.’

“Taken for a ride,” say experts

That sentiment is shared by Frank Furedi, head of the MCC Brussels think tank, who said the UK’s negotiators had been ‘taken for a ride’ by the EU.

“Our team had no idea how to play hardball,” Furedi said. “They just wanted an easy life and didn’t care about the financial consequences. Meanwhile, the EU Commission is laughing all the way to the bank – they got a brilliant deal.”

While the UK’s annual payments have declined since 2020, they’ve still added up to a huge amount:

• £18.1 billion in 2020
• £5.8 billion in 2021
• £9.3 billion in 2022
• £8.2 billion in 2023
• £3.25 billion in 2024

When Britain was still part of the EU, its net contribution typically ranged between £8.9 billion and £9.4 billion per year. Now, even after leaving, the country has ended up paying far more in total than many had ever expected.

Taxpayers left frustrated

The news has reignited anger among Brexit supporters who believe the UK should have cut financial ties completely once it left. Many see the ongoing payments as proof that the Government hasn’t fully delivered on its promise to “take back control.”

“This was meant to be about independence,” said one Reform Party spokesperson. “Instead, British taxpayers are still footing the bill for Brussels while families here struggle to pay rent and energy bills.”

Economists point out that most of the payments are legally binding under the Withdrawal Agreement signed in 2019, meaning there’s little the Government can do to stop them. Still, the growing total comes at a politically awkward time – with the Autumn Budget just weeks away and speculation of further tax hikes on the horizon.

The Treasury has declined to comment on whether any renegotiation is possible, though ministers have previously insisted that Britain “must honour its commitments.”

For critics, that’s cold comfort. With the post-Brexit bill now topping £50 billion, many Britons are left wondering whether the price of leaving the EU turned out higher than anyone ever imagined.