The UK will save no money from leaving the European Union over the next five years and could be paying its Brexit divorce bill until at least 2064, according to the government’s independent budget watchdog.
Outlining the cost of severing links with the EU, the Office for Budget Responsibility said government spending up until 2023 would have been the same if the UK had voted to remain in the 2016 referendum.
On the current course assumed by the OBR, the financial settlement required to leave the EU and spending to replace European funding in the UK will cost the country just as much as full membership.
The latest estimate for the cost of settling the UK’s debts with Brussels comes after Theresa May agreed to a financial settlement in December so that talks could move on to the country’s future trading relationship. The OBR, in documents released alongside the chancellor’s spring statement, said it expected the total settlement would be about £37.1bn, which is in line with the sum previously quoted by the prime minister of between £35bn and £39bn.
However, the independent economic forecaster also revealed payments could be made to Brussels until at least 2064, a period after leaving the EU next year equal to the entire duration of Britain’s membership since the mid-1970s. The payments mainly relate to the country’s share of €76.7bn (£68bn) in EU pensions scheme liabilities. [...]
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