Yahoo News David Cameron says Britain must pay Brexit divorce bill as Theresa May meets EU negotatiors in Downing Street
David Cameron has said Britain should settle its £50 billion “divorce bill” with the European Union before trade talks can start, as Theresa May held her first face-to-face meeting with the EU’s chief negotiator.
The Prime Minister is not thought to have discussed exit payments when she met Michel Barnier for the first time over dinner in Downing Street on Wednesday night, together with the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
They are understood to have discussed the need to reach a quick deal on migrants’ rights in a broad-brush meeting along similar lines to Mrs May’s meeting with Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, earlier this month.
But her predecessor Mr Cameron made it clear that he agrees with Mr Barnier’s stance that the UK should “settle the accounts” before starting talks on a future trading relationship with the EU.
Answering questions at a global tourism summit in Bangkok, Mr Cameron appeared to back the EU's stance, saying: "I would hope that we will be able to agree, as it were, the first bits of divorce - it's a bit like a divorce, you have to deal with the money and then access to the children afterwards."
He said he thought both sides could agree that "of course we accept some liabilities for this membership we've had for 40 years, just as we have a claim on some of the assets that we've paid into.
"And I think we can settle the principles of that and then get on with the nature of the relationship."
Senior members of the Government have insisted that Britain will not pay a bill of the scale suggested by the likes of Mr Juncker, with International Trade Secretary Liam Fox branding the idea "absurd".
But Mrs May has said she is ready to discuss a "fair settlement" of Britain's obligations, although she has given no hint of the amount she is prepared to contemplate.
On Saturday the European Council will hold a summit where leaders of the other 27 EU countries will discuss their draft guidelines for negotiations, which reject the UK's pleas for parallel trade and divorce talks.
Mr Cameron said he the EU referendum had been necessary to remove the “poison” from British politics, and is optimistic about the outcome of Brexit, suggesting that the starting point for a deal could be maintaining free trade in goods, before striking sector-by-sector agreements in areas such as financial services, agriculture and air travel.
He said the separate agreements could be deals "in principle" to be implemented over a transition period, which the EU has acknowledged may be necessary in its draft guidelines.
"If business and industry can see, as it were, the landing zone of where you're going to end up, I don't think there then needs to be a fall in confidence about what happens next," Mr Cameron said.
David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, insisted yesterday that the election will not slow down work on Brexit, saying: “Even as the election campaign proceeds, the work of Government goes on to prepare for the negotiations.”
Speaking to the Prosperity UK conference in London, Mr Davis said "cool heads, strong leadership and traditional British resolve" would be needed to secure a good deal as the UK leaves the EU.
Meanwhile sources in Brussels disclosed that Mr Tusk had refused to describe Brexit negotiations as “win-win” when he met Mrs May on April 6. Whitehall sources insisted Mrs May had never asked him to do so.
Instead he told Mrs May both sides would lose out from the Brexit process.
