London: Britain will be presented with a £50 billion ($85 billion) "exit bill" by the European Union as soon as British Prime Minister Theresa May triggers Article 50, Brussels' chief negotiator is warning.
Once Article 50 is triggered, Britain has two years to negotiate its exit from the EU.
Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, has told his colleagues that the UK must keep paying "tens of billions" annually into the EU budget until 2020. The bill would include the UK's share of outstanding pensions liabilities, loan guarantees and spending on UK-based projects.
The demands, which came as Mrs May held meetings with EU leaders before being excluded from a dinner at an EU summit, were dismissed by senior Conservatives who refuted the idea of paying such a bill.
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Others shrugged off the demands and claimed they were simply the EU's opening position in an attempted negotiation. Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary and Leave campaigner, said that the figure was a "dreadful joke" and that the true figure would be "peanuts".
It came as Britain's EU ambassador was accused of being a "gloomy pessimist" after telling the Prime Minister that Brexit would take a decade. Conservatives raised questions about the position of Sir Ivan Rogers - who helped negotiate David Cameron's EU deal ahead of the referendum - and said he was "completely out of his comfort zone" after he warned that a trade deal may not be completed until the mid-2020s, despite those claims later being contradicted by the European Commission.
Mr Barnier, a Frenchman who has previously suggested that the Brexit negotiations should be conducted in French, has told a number of EU leaders about his plans for a €50 billion bill for Britain.
Tomas Prouza, Czech Republic's Europe minister, told Sky News: "I understand why the Eurosceptics call it an exit fee. But this is agreeing the bills that the UK has already agreed to pay.
"We're talking about payments to the existing budget that the UK already voted for, pensions of British citizens working at the EU. This is only things the UK has already committed itself to paying".
When asked whether British taxpayers should expect a bill worth tens of billions of pounds, Mr Prouza said this is what the UK has already committed to pay.
"Definitely. And we would expect that the UK would honour its commitments... it will be one of the first issues coming up on the table."
Mr Duncan Smith accused Remain campaigners of fostering fear.
"It's playing to the gallery to try and persuade Britain to beg for mercy. We will not. This is based on their fevered imagination, not reality. The remainers will use this to try to stop Brexit, it's project fear all over again. It is utter, total rubbish from Mr Barnier. You expect more. He will keep trying to get his mouth into the media. There are real questions about what we owe, it's probably peanuts. He is deploying the tactics of project fear. People won't believe it," Mr Duncan Smith said.
Dominic Raab, a former justice minister, didn't take the idea seriously.
"Good luck with that. I'm not sure Monsieur Barnier has quite mastered the art of expectation management, but it's good to know he's got a sense of humour."
Steve Baker, the Conservative MP for Wycombe, said: "You would expect a negotiator to make a high demand, if he had come in with a low demand I think we would all have been very surprised. Our membership of the EU has resulted in us accruing liabilities, for example pension rights for staff who have worked for the EU, so there will be some discussion about this but I would obviously like that bill to be as close to zero as possible."
Arriving in Brussels, Mrs May reiterated she wanted the transmission to be as smooth and orderly as possible.
"t's not just in our interests, it's in the interest of the rest of Europe as well," she said.
Mr Barnier has been criticised in recent weeks after appearing to dismiss David Davis, the Brexit secretary, in a series of tweets after their first meeting in Brussels. He described the meeting as a "courtesy visit" and said he told Mr Davis there will be "no negotiation" before Mrs May triggers Article 50.
"I think [Mr Barnier] has been aloof, petulant in his treatment of David Davis in his recent tweets and I think he has been indifferent to the anxiety of citizens of the UK and Europe who are worried about their rights," Mr Baker said.
Downing Street said the UK would meet its obligations while it remained a member of the EU - but any financial settlement after that would be a matter for negotiation.
"Decisions on how UK taxpayers' money is spent will be decisions for the UK to take moving forward," a Number 10 source said. "There's a whole range of complex issues that will need to be resolved in the negotiations.
"One of the issues that will be for discussion and negotiation is the EU budget contribution and things like that. The important thing is that once we have left, the UK Government will make decisions on how taxpayers' money is spent."
Telegraph, London
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