The key quote
‘Another £1 billion a month’
Boris Johnson on the cost to Britain of the three-month extension to Brexit
Analysis
This is wrong. The UK makes payments of roughly £1 billion a month to the EU, although this doesn’t take into account some money that the UK gets back. But this claim ignores the fact that under the Government’s withdrawal deal the UK will pay the same contributions until the end of December 2020. This is part of the financial settlement (known as the “divorce bill”).
Budget payments made during the Brexit extension to January 2020 simply come off the overall divorce bill. This has already happened once: the divorce bill was estimated at about £39 billion if the UK had left in March 2019, but fell to about £33 billion as a result of extending the Brexit date by six months.
There is a separate decision the Government will need to make before July 1, 2020, about whether to extend the transition period beyond December 2020, for example, to allow more time for trade negotiations.
If that happens, the UK will indeed pay more into the EU budget. The monthly amount is not known; it would be decided by negotiation.
Verdict
Not true. The UK had already agreed to make payments for the current extension period, in or out.
Full Fact is the UK’s independent factchecking organisation. For sources and more factchecks go to fullfact.org
