UK to leave EU

[Pat Mustard]

Not sure about this. There are many financial obligations that have to be fulfilled or that we were due to fulfill, that we'll owe them money for. Is it as much as the £60b figure that's been thrown about? Probably not but it may well be billions. And we need to consider that the EU received funding from us so since we're the party that's leaving, we may well need to provide maintenance. We'll see but my cynicism tells me we'll pay something; I hope I'm wrong.

Well the annual pension costs of currently retired British civil servants who worked in the EU is about €1.4bn. Either the UK pays up or 1,700 and growing British subjects will find that they have no income after 2019. That'll go a long way towards €60bn all on its own. Then there's stuff like membership of CERN or the ESA which May will eventually realise it's essential to stay part of if British scientific research wants to continue. And then there's stuff like the EU medicines review authority (currently based in London) which May will eventually realise it's essential to stay part of if the UK wants a pharmaceutical industry. My guess is that the €60bn may be an underestimate when you factor in lifetime costs of stuff like that and the one time payments already agreed to.