{"id":902295,"date":"2026-04-18T07:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/902295\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:05:23","slug":"brexit-bombshell-as-shocking-report-reveals-uk-gave-1-3bn-to-eu-last-year-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/902295\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit bombshell as shocking report reveals UK gave \u00a31.3bn to EU last year | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Keir Starmer<\/a> pursues his reset<\/a> with the EU, a new Treasury report<\/a> has exposed the UK\u2019s continued \u00a31.3 billion payment to Brussels in 2025, raising fresh questions about Britain\u2019s leverage in ongoing negotiations. The European Union Finances Statement 2025, published by HM Treasury on March 26, details how Britain continued to meet its obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement through a series of euro-denominated invoices paid in monthly instalments.<\/p>\n

The document shows the full \u00a31.3 billion was transferred last year via two invoices issued by the EU in April and September, with the April sum settled in four instalments from June to September and the September invoice paid in eight monthly instalments from October to May. Frank Furedi, executive director of the think tank MCC Brussels, said: \u201cThe fact that the UK is still paying \u00a31.3 billion in 2025 \u2013 years after formally leaving the European Union<\/a> \u2013 underlines how the Withdrawal Agreement locked Britain into a long tail of liabilities that few voters fully understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s own figures show that between 2020 and the end of 2025, the UK paid a net \u00a325.7 billion to Brussels. Table 3.A records gross payments of \u00a342.2 billion over the period, offset by receipts, resulting in the \u00a325.7 billion net outturn.<\/p>\n

Table 3.B sets the overall Treasury point estimate for the entire financial settlement \u2013 including Article 50 extension costs \u2013 at \u00a337.9 billion net.<\/p>\n

The report confirms that these payments are managed through a rolling system of invoices and instalments stretching across the calendar year. The document explains the EU\u2019s invoicing process and the use of daily exchange rates to convert euro liabilities into sterling.<\/p>\n

The overwhelming majority of this money is not ring-fenced, meaning it flows directly into the EU\u2019s general budget with limited transparency over how it is ultimately spent.<\/p>\n

Only a specific portion \u2013 primarily related to UK pension liabilities (\u20ac333.9 million) and access to certain IT systems and databases (\u20ac1.4 million) \u2013 is treated as assigned revenue for specific purposes. The remainder enters the EU\u2019s central funds as unassigned revenue.<\/p>\n

Mr Furedi added: \u201cThese payments are not even straightforward: they are made through a rolling system of invoices and instalments stretching across the year, reinforcing the sense that Brexit<\/a> has not delivered a clean financial break.<\/p>\n

“Moreover, the overwhelming majority of this money is not ringfenced, meaning it flows directly into the EU\u2019s general budget with limited transparency over how it is ultimately spent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also identifies separate liabilities outside the main settlement. An additional \u00a3481 million remains outstanding for the UK\u2019s contribution to the European Development Fund.<\/p>\n

Separate discussions continue over the EU\u2019s demands for extra payments linked to the \u201cGlobal Margin of Commitments\u201d, with the Treasury noting ongoing negotiations under the Withdrawal Agreement\u2019s governance structures.<\/p>\n

Payments related to UK participation in programmes such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ are handled under separate arrangements and are not included in these figures.<\/p>\n

Mr Furedi concluded: \u201cAs Keir Starmer<\/a> pursues his much-vaunted \u2018reset\u2019 with the EU, this lingering financial entanglement raises serious questions about how much leverage the UK really has.<\/p>\n

“Far from drawing a line under membership, the UK remains tied into a complex web of obligations and ongoing negotiations \u2013 from residual liabilities to potential additional demands \u2013 which risk deepening, rather than resolving, the ambiguities of the Brexit settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Treasury document, the 45th in the series on the implementation of the settlement, stresses that all figures are based on actual transactions and current forecasts. It projects payments continuing until 2065, primarily for long-term pension liabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Keir Starmer pursues his reset with the EU, a new Treasury report has exposed the UK\u2019s continued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,5322,34759,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,43624,16,254052,254051,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-902295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-news","10":"tag-brexit-withdrawal-agreement","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-keir-starmer-eu-reset","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-uk-payments-to-eu","21":"tag-uk-eu-financial-obligations","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116424443564809498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}