Britain and the European Union were locked in a dispute last night over the size of London's final Brexit divorce bill as official accounts filed in Brussels showed that UK taxpayers must pay more than £40billion to leave the bloc - nearly £2billion more than previously forecast.
The British Office for Budget Responsibility had previously estimated that the final cost would be £39billion - £1.8billion less than the EU amount contained in Brussels' consolidated budget report for 2020 published without fanfare last week.
The final Brexit bill would have been higher at £43billion, but the EU owes Britain £1.8billion for its share of fines imposed by the bloc before the end of the transition period at the end of last year.
Ministers believed the final sum would be less than £39billion because the numerous extensions of the transition period meant that the total was decreased as a result of Britain's contributions to the EU Budget.
The news is likely to spark fury among Eurosceptics on the Tory backbench and comes amid tension between Brussels and London over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, which was created to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Boris Johnson visits the Energy Company Bulb in Liverpool Street
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holding a press conference in Zagreb, Croatia
The Protocol negotiated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's now Brexit Minister Lord Frost ties Northern Ireland to a variety of EU customs checks, which has resulted in trade disruption since its implementation in January. But unionists and loyalists have furiously warned that the system has effectively cut off the province from Great Britain.
The financial settlement was agreed during talks over the Withdrawal Agreement, but any increase in the expected bill would irritate Tory Eurosceptics. EU accounts show that nearly £198million is due to paid this year, with the rest paid out over several decades.
The divorce bill is divided into two parts - with one part related to outstanding spending commitments made when the UK was a member state, while the other covers pension liabilities and health insurance for EU staff.
The figures were first reported by RTE, which said that the EU accounts had not yet been signed off by auditors. Tony Murphy, Ireland's member of the EU's Court of Auditors, told the broadcaster that the figure was unlikely to change.
'While the 2020 EU consolidated accounts published by the Commission are as of yet provisional the Court has completed its audit work on these accounts,' he said in a statement.
'Following internal adoption procedures the Court is set to issue an unmodified opinion on the reliability of the 2020 EU consolidated accounts, as we have in previous years. Therefore, for all intent and purposes the figures published by the Commission are definitive.'
The final Brexit bill would have been higher at £43billion, but the EU owes Britain £1.8billion for its share of fines imposed by the bloc before the end of the transition period at the end of last year
The sum exceeds earlier estimates from the UK, with the UK's fiscal watchdog saying the net cost to Britain might be £34billion.
A trade and cooperation deal between the UK and EU was struck in December
