04:25

A German parliamentarian close to the chancellor, Angela Merkel, has confirmed that the European Union wants the UK to agree to pay up to €100bn (£89.4bn) to settle the Brexit divorce bill.

Michael Fuchs, vice chair of the of Merkel’s CDU/CSU group in the German parliament, said the €20bn (£17.9bn) so far offered by the UK was inadequate. Asked by ITV’s Good Morning Britain how much the EU was demanding, Fuchs said:

I cannot give you the final figure, but there is a figure of between €100bn and maybe €60bn [£53.7bn]. Something in between these two numbers should be the right point. This is what the negotiations have to do at moment. I hope David Davis is coming up with decent proposals, €20bn is definitely not enough.

Fuchs also confirmed that money was the major sticking point in the stalled negotiations. He said:

There is an offer of €20bn which is obviously not enough. You can just calculate all the pensions and it’s very obvious that the Europeans don’t want to pay the pensions for the Brits which are living in Brussels. So we have to find a solution on that topic first and then we go on with other topics.

But Fuchs described May’s letter to EU citizens living in the UK as a “positive” sign that she was considering the interest of Europeans in the UK.



Asked to respond to Fuchs comments about money, Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, said:

We are in negotiations. We will honour our commitments - we have got a moral duty to do that but [we need] to work through exactly what it is to make sure what we are paying for is right for Great Britain, as much as it is right for the European partners.