The United Kingdom will no longer owe the 39 billion pound ($48 billion) divorce bill, if it leaves the European Union without a deal, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told ITV television channel on Sunday.
“If we come out without an agreement it is certainly true that the 39 billion pound is no longer strictly speaking owed,” he said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French resort city of Biarritz.
The 39 billion pound divorce bill was earlier agreed with Brussels by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May.
The UK premier thus confirmed the media reports that London would cut the divorce deal for the country’s exit from the EU to 9 billion pounds ($11 billion) from 39 billion pounds, in the event of a no-deal. The Mail on Sunday reported that in the absence of a compromise on the Brexit terms, Brussels might get just 9 billion pounds or as little as 7 billion pounds.
Former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Conservative Party on July 23. He succeeded Theresa May whose leadership led the country into a lingering and gloomy political crisis around Brexit. In his first speech as the head of government, the UK prime minister pledged that his country would leave the European Union in any case on October 31.