EXCLUSIVE – SNP’s Blackford & LibDem’s Davey to land taxpayers with new £120bn EU bill

We reveal what SNP, LibDems, Plaid, SDLP, Alliance, Greens want you to pay to the EU

EU’s new £2.2TN package turns any extension of Transition Period into a shocker

This week a set of announcements from the EU made the UK’s full departure this year a necessity. The news also leaves opposition leaders Ian Blackford (SNP) and Sir Ed Davey (LibDems) with some serious questions to answer.

On Wednesday in Brussels the EU Commission unveiled its financial plans for the EU for the next seven year budget cycle. These plans show at least some of the massive costs which would be incurred by the United Kingdom, were the British Government to agree to extend the Transition Period beyond the end of this year.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The EU Commission’s proposed new budgets

Three safety nets of €540 billion in loans, already agreed by EU Parliament and Council
New recovery instrument, called Next Generation EU – worth €750 billion
Revamped EU budget of €157 billion per year for seven years
TOTAL : €2.4 trillion (approx £2.2 TRILLION GBP) over the next seven years

The impact on the UK if the opposition parties got their way

Here is what this could mean for the UK’s finances, if the SNP, LibDems, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, Alliance, and Greens succeeded in getting the Transition Period extended. Looking solely at the new EU budget and the “Next Generation EU” rescue package, the calculation of the UK’s potential liability to the EU is:-

Approx £120 billion GBP
This would be incured if the UK sought a two-year extension to the Transition Period
(Based on the UK’s historic average of paying 12.5% of the EU’s bills, and based on the EU's usual justifications of demands for payment.)

Leaders of six opposition parties would open up the UK to this massive extra bill from the EU

Six minority party leaders signed the letter to Michel Barnier
They lead parties accounting for just 19.5% of the electorate
None of the party leaders representing 80.5% of the electorate signed the letter

Most readers will know that the leaders of several minor opposition parties at Westminster – all of whom are anti-Brexit and who are pictured above – wrote to Michel Barnier last week, requesting a two-year extension. He replied saying the EU would agree.

The letter to Monsieur Barnier was signed by the SNP leader Ian Blackford, acting Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts, Green MP Caroline Lucas, Stephen Farry, MP from the Alliance Party, and fellow Northern Ireland MP and leader of the SDLP at Westminster, Colum Eastwood.

Monsieur Barnier replied, and we published his letter in our article on Thursday here.

In the United Kingdom General Election of December 2019 – only six months ago - the combined votes for the six parties who signed the letter to Michel Barnier barely made it over six million. They represented only 19.5% of the voters and have 66 MPs out of a total of 650 in the House of Commons.

Notes on the calculations for the extra bill

Our calculations cover the two years of the extension to the Transition Period requested by the SNP’s Ian Blackford, the LibDem’s Ed Davey, and their colleagues from other parties. We have only included the usual EU budget contributions and the liability for the EU’s proposed “Next Generation EU” €750 billion rescue package.

Whilst a third of the rescue package is supposedly a loan, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says payments “will be channelled through the European budget. And this will limit each country's contribution according to a fixed formula.” In other words, it seems that recipient countries will be expected to pay back according to their net contributions, and 17 of the EU27 countries do not contribute in net terms at all. Whether any recipient countries ever do pay back these loans is a big question.

It is worth reminding the opposition leaders that the EU would be highly unlikely to agree to a continuation of the UK’s large rebate as it stands. This means that the UK’s contributions to the annual budget could increase substantially. It should also be stated that when the UK voted to leave the EU, the EU held the UK responsible for all possible future payments for projects which had been envisaged but had not even remotely started. This is one of the reasons that the disastrous £39 billion “divorce bill” was so high.

For these and other reasons based on five years of daily, detailed study of the EU, we believe that opposition leaders should be ready to justify to the British public an overall extra bill from the EU of more than the magnitude we have indicated.

Finally, and for comparison purposes, the Centre for Brexit Policy recently published its own report on the costs of extending the Transition Period. Their report concluded that extending for two years beyond 31 December 2020 – as the smaller opposition parties want – would cost the UK £378 billion. And this was BEFORE the EU announced its proposals last week for increased funds.

To reiterate, our calculation of an extra liability of £120 billion to the EU is only based on a very conservative estimate of the usual annual contributions, plus the liability for the EU’s new rescue package.

Observations

The anti-democratic antics of these MPs, colluding with a foreign power against the policies of the democratically-elected Government of the United Kingdom, have attracted significant criticism, not the least of which has come from us.

In addition, our opinion is that Monsieur Barnier’s reply last week constituted interference in the sovereign affairs of the United Kingdom – the EU’s most powerful economic neighbour.

Send the bill to the headquarters of all the smaller parties

Above we have revealed one part of the huge cost which these opposition MPs wish to impose on the British people. Have they remotely thought this through? Have they even begun to tell the voters just how much more of people's hard-earned money they would be committing to spend?

For these politicians, the Coronavirus is merely another excuse to try to thwart Brexit. They don’t care about the added period of economic uncertainty they would cause. They don’t care about the democratically-expressed decision of the British people. They simply want to stop Brexit at all costs.

The Government must press firmly ahead with Brexit next week

When David Frost and his UK negotiating team go in to bat against Michel Barnier and his Eureaucrats in the fourth round of the trade talks next week, we hope they will do so knowing that a great many British people are behind them.

Boris Johnson has made it perfectly clear that the Transition Period will not be extended. He even encapsulated this into law. David Frost has repeated this clear policy, as recently as this week. We suggest that Monsieur Barnier stops clutching at straws - and at straw men and women from smaller UK parties which are nowhere near the reins of power.

Mr Barnier should tell his masters and mistresses in the EU27’s capitals that the EU will have to back down across the board if he is to get a trade deal with the United Kingdom.

If you have never donated towards our work, may we suggest that today would be a good day to do so? Work like ours is immensely time-consuming, which is possibly why so few people seem to do it. Quick and secure donation methods are below. Your details will be confidential unless you expressly tell us otherwise. Thank you so much for promoting freedom of speech and supporting our work towards the achievement of a fully-free and independent United Kingdom.

[ Sources: EU Parliament | EU Commission | SNP and LibDem social media feeds ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 30 May 2020

Click here to go to our news headlines

And please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 51

1. Concerned , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 05:32:

In my view these parties are haters of our country and part of the new 'green deal' i.e. on the ramp of communism. I would not trust any of them as far as I could throw them.

2. sharon Wales , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 06:36:

Projekt fear is going into meltdown in the media, they have become even more deranged and desperate in their last attempt to save the dying ponzi scheme. Either the EU will implode or it will greedily swallow the member states and finally become a country. Whatever the outcome we need to distance ourselves quickly.

3. Den W , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 06:46:

But they not got the power to do it

4. Maureen , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 06:51:

I hope the people who voted for these numptys read this and they will finally see sense.

5. Donna / Berks , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 06:58:

It's funny but I didn't see this on the bbc or sky last week. Must have missed it in all the coverage of emily makepiece's political attack on dominic cummings.
Well done facts4eu as always.

6. Ashley Great Britain , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 07:10:

I've got some savings and my piggy bank I could raid if they need it. its for a good cause.

7. Gordon , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 07:14:

We are estimated to be £300 billion in the hole from Covid19 and that may grow. That alone will put us in recession and worse still as many businesses will be lost, jobs lost, tax income reduced and excessive debt.
So, on top of this these destructive anti British politicians want to put the country in a situation where we remain under the control of a foreign power and have to pay them 10's of billions. That is TREASON.

8. Eleanor B , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 08:06:

They need to go back to school and pay more attention in maths. They are clearly incapable of learning from previous experiences of EU. The EU are desperate for us to extend so they can screw us for billions for their recovery fund!

9. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 08:15:

Adding this huge sum to the Coronavirus bill is just common sense says Ed Davey. I would describe it as being out of his mind.
He is supposed to have studied economjcs along with a PPE.

10. Ashley Great Britain , Saturday, May 30, 2020, 08:30:

These people fully understand that staying in the EU would damage Britain.This is what they want.Its the plan.
Its always been about weakening Britain and controlling us,while taking our money to support and uplift EU countries.
These ministers along with countless others work for themselves against the interests of the UK.
They shouldn't even have a seat in a council building,let alone Westminster.
They are dangerous poison to our nation.

51 comments, page 1 of 6

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.