06 August, 2017
But it comes amid apparent splits over the terms of any transition arrangement to provide a bridge between the withdrawal date and the agreement of a new trade deal with the EU.
The UK government will later this month reveal two key aspects of its Brexit plan in an effort to dispel the feeling in Brussels that Britain is unprepared for negotiations, according to reports.
It said prioritising an agreement to extend Brexit talks under Article 50 would be "on paper the simplest solution", giving more time to negotiate a trading relationship.
The newspaper said British officials were likely to offer to pay 10 billion euros a year for three years after leaving the European Union in March 2019, then finalise the total alongside detailed trade talks. May has said only that Britain will pay if it owes something but left open the possibility that it might be the European Union that pays London.Rights and finance are being dealt with two working groups. "Ours is closer to €30bn, but the landing zone is €40bn, even if the public and politicians are not all there yet", the senior Whitehall source added.
Whitehall is the London district where British civil servants and ministers are based.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that "separate sources in Whitehall and government with knowledge of the UK's negotiating strategy confirmed the figure, dismissing previous reports that Theresa May would agree to a £50bn bill as "too high".
Last week the Bank of England said Brexit uncertainty was weighing on the economy.
"The 27 say they can't knock off the bits of their "bill" until the very end - but politically we can't move on money until the 27 member states start to show compromise".
If Britain can not conclude an exit deal, trade relations would be governed by World Trade Organization rules, which would allow both parties to impose tariffs and customs checks and leave many other issues unsettled.
Extending the Article 50 deadline of March 2019 was suggested as the simplest solution on paper as it would give the United Kingdom government "more time to negotiate a new trading relationship with the European Union as part of its withdrawal agreement, and would be the easiest to square with the World Trade Organisation", but would be very politically challenging option for the European Union and in the Commons.
