One step closer to the exit: Cameron goes to war on £1.7 BILLION bill as he hints Britain will vote to leave EU... but why was he kept in the dark about shock demand?

By Daniel Martin and John Stevens for the Daily Mail and Peter Allen for MailOnline

Published: 17:01 EDT, 24 October 2014 | Updated: 21:54 EDT, 24 October 2014

Brussels’ shock demand for £1.7billion more from Britain has pushed us closer to leaving the EU, a furious David Cameron admitted yesterday.

The Prime Minister insisted the payment – which works out at £56 for every taxpayer – was ‘not going to happen’.

And asked if the demand makes it more likely that the UK will vote to leave in his promised 2017 referendum, he said it ‘certainly doesn’t help’. Defiant: David Cameron has insisted Britain will not be paying the surprise £1.7billion bill demanded by the EU

The European Commission made the surprise demand for the money on Thursday after recalculating the relative wealth of each member state.

Britain was told to pay more because its economy has performed better than expected. But countries including France whose economies have under-performed will receive multi-million-pound rebates – something critics said was essentially a reward for their ‘basket case’ economic policies.

Mr Cameron made it clear he was ready to take legal action to try to block the EU charge, which he compared with being ‘clubbed with lead piping’.

He interrupted a summit of European leaders in Brussels yesterday morning to demand discussion of the huge backdated charge, securing agreement on an urgent meeting of EU finance ministers next month to review the proposed payments. Controversial: The UK was told to pay more as its economy has exceeded expectations but under-performing countries including France will receive multi-million-pound rebates (French President Francois Hollande, right) Adamant: Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing president of the European Commission, indicated that the £1.7billion bill was not up for negotiation

But Germany’s powerful leader Angela Merkel – whose country is set to receive a rebate – suggested Britain would eventually end up paying the vast sum, and said she had no problem with the calculations.

Farcically, 24 hours after it emerged Britain was facing the budget surcharge, the Commission was still unable to explain how the figure had been calculated. The chart shows the monstrous bill handed to the UK by the EU in comparison with other member states

There was a growing row last night over whether the UK should have been better prepared for the charge.

It emerged that Chancellor George Osborne had known about the demand on Tuesday but, embarrassingly, he had not passed on the information to the Prime Minister, who did not find out until Thursday.

David Cameron was left red-faced as he was forced to admit he had been kept in the dark for days about the shock £1.7billion demand after George Osborne failed to inform him.

The surprise bill was presented to the Treasury by the EU Commission last Friday.

But extraordinarily it was almost a week before the Prime Minister learnt about it on Thursday.

And according to Labour, the Office for National Statistics might have known about it five months ago.

Mr Cameron yesterday refused to apportion blame for the farcical series of events that led to him being told only hours before he arrived at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday.

A three-page document informing the UK of the £1.7billion surcharge to be paid by December 1 was sent to the Treasury at the end of last week.

It is understood senior officials were told of the massive demand on Monday and the Chancellor yesterday admitted he was told ‘earlier this week’.

Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: ‘I personally first became aware of it over the last couple of days.’

But Labour suggested that the Government should have known months ago that the budget recalculation was being done.

Pat McFadden, the party’s Europe spokesman, said: ‘The UK’s Office for National Statistics published a report over five months ago detailing the changes made to UK growth figures which it clearly stated were for use in the calculation of a Member State’s contribution to the EU budget.

‘Did the Government delay making news public about this expected revision to the UK’s EU contribution because of fears about how it would play out for the Conservative Party?’

The EU’s financial demand is terrible timing for the Tories, coming weeks before the Rochester and Strood by-election in which Ukip is threatening to snatch the seat from them.

At a campaign event in Chatham last night, Mr Cameron suggested a lower sum could be acceptable, saying: ‘If it is two billion euros, no we are not going to pay.’

Earlier in Brussels he had spoken of his ‘downright anger’ at the surcharge and said he would not pay on December 1. The £1.7billion bill represents almost a fifth of Britain’s net contribution last year. Mr Cameron said: ‘It is an unacceptable way for this organisation to work – to suddenly present a bill like this for such a vast sum of money with so little time to pay it.

‘I am not paying that bill on December 1. If people think I am, they have got another think coming.’

Mr Cameron demanded an investigation into how the bill was calculated, adding: ‘We will challenge this in every way possible. There may indeed be legal action.’

The prime ministers of Italy and Holland have also spoken out against the demands made to their own countries.

Asked whether the colossal bill made it harder to argue that Britain should stay in the EU, Mr Cameron said: ‘Well it certainly doesn’t help, let’s put it like that.

‘I think there is a strong case for Britain involved in the European Union, if we can reform it in the way I have set out.

‘When you are presented with a bill like this, with a month to go, is that helpful for Britain’s membership of the European Union? No, it certainly is not.’ In Britain, the demand was criticised by even the most strident supporters of the EU, with Europhile Lib Dem MEPs joining Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers in condemning the EU Commission.

Catherine Bearder, a Lib Dem MEP, said: ‘Just as pro-EU sentiment in UK reaches a 23-year high, the Commission clumsily gives Eurosceptics an open goal with budget request. Senseless.’

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: ‘It’s just not acceptable to try to change the fees for the EU over many previous years, and then demand the money back at a moment’s notice, without a proper explanation.’

Labour’s Europe spokesman Pat McFadden said: ‘It’s unacceptable that the outgoing EU Commission should spring a backdated bill on member states in this way.’

Eurosceptic Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘The Prime Minister should tell them to stick their 2billion euro demand where the sun doesn’t shine. We’re already paying £20billion a year in EU membership fees. They’ve got a damn nerve coming back for more.’

The French media today reacted mockingly to Mr Cameron’s refusal to pay Britain’s EU budget contribution – likening him to an angry diner out of Fawlty Towers.

All major outlets highlighted the Prime Minister’s fury, with the Dauphine Libere running the headline: ‘Angry Cameron refuses to take out his cheque book for Europe’.

Europe 1 radio station was typical of those which took up the Fawlty Towers theme, portraying Mr Cameron as the kind of ranting and very dissatisfied restaurant customer who used to visit Basil Fawlty’s hotel in the 1970s comedy sitcom starring John Cleese.

Europe 1 writes on its website: ‘A diner unconvinced by the proposed EU menu, David Cameron refuses to pay the bill.

‘It has to be said this is a bit rich, because Brussels is demanding an additional two billion euros from Britain as part of its share of EU budget.

‘Faced with this request, the British Prime Minister has abandoned the traditional English reserve to rant at a press conference that was held on Friday.’

Le Parisien runs a picture showing Mr Cameron with his mouth wide open, and suggests that he was forced to act in such an angry manner by the success of the UK Independence Party.

‘Under immense pressure from Eurosceptics, notably since the last European elections which saw Ukip win more than 27 per cent of the vote, David Cameron believes that this demand does not support the issue of Britain being in the EU,’ the Paris daily wrote.

Like many other papers, L’Express and Le Monde concentrate on the reaction of Francois Hollande to the growing crisis, quoting the clearly irritated Socialist president as saying: ‘Respecting treaties is for everybody.’

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the only way to avoid the surcharge was by leaving the Union.

‘The EU is like a thirsty vampire feasting on UK taxpayers’ blood. We need to protect the innocent victims, who are us,’ he added.
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