Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has told MPs the European Union can “go whistle” for any “extortionate” final payment from the UK on Brexit. BBC reports.
And he said that the government had “no plan” for what to do in the event of no deal being agreed with the EU.
He said: “The sums I have seen that they propose to demand from this country appear to be extortionate.”
“Go whistle seems to me to be an entirely appropriate expression,” he added.
Asked during Commons questions if there was a strategy, either public or private, for what would happen if there was no agreement on Brexit, Mr Johnson said: “There is no plan for no deal because we are going to get a great deal.”
His comments come after No 10 sources played down suggestions that Theresa May plans to walk out of Brexit talks in September to show defiance over EU demands for a divorce bill worth tens of billions of pounds.
Mrs May has said that her view going into the Brexit negotiations was that “no deal is better than a bad deal”.
Mr Johnson’s comments seem to be at odds with Brexit Secretary David Davis, who told the BBC last month that the government had “worked up in detail” the “no deal” option on Brexit.