The UK’s Brexit “divorce bill” stood at €41.8bn (£36.7bn) in 2021, according to the EU’s official auditors.
The European court of auditors’ annual report revealed that the UK was expected to make €10.9bn in payments to the EU during 2022.
The Brexit divorce bill was down from €47.5bn (£41.7bn) in 2020, reflecting payments made by the British government.
If we’d stayed in then we would have had to pay this amount. At least. We leave, we have to pay this amount. So, this isn’t an amount determined by being in or not being in. It’s an amount determined by having been in.
This isn’t the divorce bill, this is the alimony. We made a mistake, whelped some idiot policies which we’ve got to pay for. But the advantage of alimony is that the payments do stop – as they don’t if you continue the marriage.
Hold on, if it’s a divorce, shouldn’t *we* be the ones *receiving* alimony? They’ve kept the house and kids, we’re the abused party fleeing the partnership.
@ jgh
It’s always the breadwinner who pays alimony even if he keeps the kids and she keeps the house. We, second only to Germany, were the principal (gross and net) contributor to the EU budget.
There are some EU technology and intelligence projects that the UK contributes to and benefits from so it isn’t all spunked away, just most of it.
It has always struck me as being like those ghastly book subscription “clubs” that provide you with a number of good books for free when you join followed by a book on subscription every month. It’s only after you join that you discover that the regular books you get are rubbish. It’s only after you try to leave that you discover how expensive it all is.
A club that you have to pay to leave is not one worth joining.