British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond | Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images UK chancellor: Brexit bill non-payment would damage UK’s reputation Philip Hammond told MPs that it was not ‘plausible or credible’ for the UK to assert it had not financial obligations in no-deal scenario.

LONDON — Withholding payments to the European Union in the event of a no-deal Brexit would damage the U.K.'s reputation as a reliable partner in future trade deals, U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond said Monday.

Some Conservative backbenchers want Prime Minister Theresa May to make the U.K.'s payment of a divorce bill of around £39 billion conditional on a generous trade deal, seeing the saving as an upside to a no-deal Brexit.

But citing advice from the Treasury's "legal counsel," Hammond said the proposed financial settlement agreed with Brussels was "making good" on commitments entered into with the U.K.’s "acquiescence" while a member of the European Union, and would be "due in any case."

While the U.K. would would not necessarily be prepared to agree the same formula in the context of no deal, it would not be "plausible or credible" for the U.K. to assert it had no obligations, he said.

"If we were to do so, we would effectively rule ourselves out as being regarded as reliable partners in future international deals of any kind, including trade deals. That wouldn’t be something that I would recommend at all," he said.