BREXIT: Minister Rejects Idea Of Secret EU F'cial Settlement

--UK Davis: Sunday Times Report "Nonsense" 

--EU Barnier: UK needs "Educating" On Consequences Of Leaving Single Market

     LONDON (MNI) - The Brexit waters were muddied further in the UK over the

weekend, after a media report suggesting the Government was readying a

'settlement' payment agreement with the European Union was dismissed as

"nonsense" by a senior minister.

     The Sunday Times said the Prime Minister Theresa May was prepared to

sanction a settlement of up to stg 50 billion with the EU, payable in three

annual stages of between stg 7 and stg 17 billion. However, the paper said, the

payment would not be announced until after the Conservative Party conference,

due to be held in early October.

     However, speaking on the BBC Andrew Marr show, David Davis, Secretary of

State for Exiting the EU, said the report was nonsense.

     According to Davis, the UK was continuing to go through the EU financial

claims line-by-line in what was a "very British and pragmatic fashion". This,

Davis said, the EU found difficult.

     "We're going through [the bill] line by line, and they're finding it

difficult because we've got good lawyers. He wants to put pressure on us, which

is why the stance this week in the press conference. Bluntly, I think it looked

a bit silly, because plainly there were things that we've achieved," Davis said,

largely repeating comments made in Washington, DC on Friday.

     Also speaking at the weekend, Michel Barnier, the Commission's chief

negotiator, told an audience in Italy that there was no plan to punish the UK,

but said Brexit would be an "educational programme" for the British.

     "There are extremely serious consequences of leaving the single market and

it hasn't been explained to the British people. We intend to teach people what

leaving the single market means," Barnier told the Ambrosetti forum.

     Boris Johnson, the UK Foreign Secretary and a leading Brexiteer, said at

the weekend that the UK would meet its legal obligations, but would not pay for

access to European markets.

     The weekend Brexit war of words comes as the UK parliament is set to return

from the Summer recess, with this week's set piece likely to be the second

reading of the EU Withdrawal bill, which starts on Thursday.

     Ahead of that, Prime Minister Theresa May has warned her pro-European MPs

that now is the time for Parliament to get behind the bill and prevent a cliff

edge at Brexit time.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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