The Government is making plans to pay billions of euros to Brussels to settle large parts of the £39bn Brexit divorce bill even in the event of a ‘no deal’, the Telegraph can reveal.

Ministers signed off the in-principle decision on Monday at a meeting of the Brexit ‘no deal’ preparedness cabinet committee, according to senior Whitehall sources.

Under a plan agreed on Monday, the Government will table an executive order, or Statutory Instrument, in the final days of the Brexit negotiations to create the legal foundations for future payments to Brussels.

The move flies in the face of expectations of leading Brexiteers that a ‘no deal’ Brexit will save the country from paying the £39 billion EU divorce settlement.

Last month the European Union put the UK on notice that it still expected the British government to “honour the obligations” from its EU membership in the event of a ‘no deal’, starting with payments for the remainder of 2019, estimated at €7.1bn (£6.1bn).

It added that it wanted written confirmation of Britain’s intention to pay by April 18 2019, with monies transferred to the EU’s account by April 30.