UK taxpayers will pay EU bureaucrats pensions for 45 years after Brexit – almost as long as the entire time Britain was a member of the Brussels club.
Fresh analysis of the financial deal the UK agreed with the EU in December shows taxpayers’ money will still be transferred to Brussels until 2064.
This means the UK will be paying towards pensions of people who have not yet even started working in Brussels.
The 45 years of the payments is just a year shy of the 46 years the UK will have been a member of the EU, having joined in 1973 and set to leave it 2019.
The Office For Budget Responsibility, which made the calculation as part of its analysis of the Government’s Spring statement, estimated the final divorce bill will come in at £37.1billion.
Tory Brexiteer Philip Hollobone said: “This won’t go down well with the British public, but the Government has said it will honour all existing financial obligations.
“This is one which will have to bear if it’s the price of securing a successful Brexit.”
The OBR’s analysis states the vast majority of the £37.1billion bill will be paid by 2022/23 – with £28billion handed over by the end of that year.
A Treasury spokesperson added that while the UK could pay the reminder of the financial settlement earlier than 2064, it is helpful to the “negotiating position of the UK” and ” in our interests not to pay our bill before we owe it.”
Eloise Todd, head of the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, described the report as a “shocker”.
She said: “We already knew that the cost of Brexit would fall on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren – now we’re told that even our great grandchildren will have a bill to pay.
“Far from the fantasy millions promised by Brexiteers, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Britain will be facing a ‘Brexit deficit’. No one who voted Leave was told we would still be paying the divorce bill in 2064.
“The Government should be honest with the British public: Brexit will leave our country poorer and ensure that the tyranny of austerity is here to stay.”