UK won’t pay 39 bln stg under no-deal Brexit -Sky News

Aug 25 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to tell European Council head Donald Tusk that the UK will only pay 9 billion pounds ($11 billion) instead of the 39 billion pound liability agreed by former Prime Minister Theresa May under a no-deal Brexit, Sky News reported early on Sunday.

Johnson and Tusk will meet on Sunday at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France. Johnson’s stance may not go down well with other European Union leaders at the summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said a no-deal Brexit would be of Britain’s own making and not the EU’s.

An official in Macron’s office said that a no-deal Brexit would not remove Britain’s obligation to pay its exit bill to the EU.

“There is no magic world in which the bill no longer exists,” the official said on Wednesday.

Failure to pay the 39 billion pound Brexit bill would amount to a sovereign debt default, a source close to Macron told Reuters in June