‘We won’t pay’: Cameron’s new warning to EU

“We’re not paying two billion euros on the first of December and we’re not paying … a sum anything like that,” Mr Cameron told parliament. “That is very clear.”

The prime minister said it was agreed there was no urgency to pay the bill, with no need for any money to be transferred until at least next year.

He said: “It is British taxpayers’ money, it not small change, it is a vast sum. This has to be examined in detail and discussed properly. That is why I interrupted the council meeting on Friday to seek an urgent resolution to this issue.”

Mr Cameron added: “The events at last week’s council will not, to use some British understatement, have enhanced the European Union in the United Kingdom.”

Treasury ministers

Labour leader Ed Miliband slammed a “cack handed and unacceptable” approach from Brussels officials but insisted the government should have seen the problems coming after the Office for National Statistics highlighted the possibility of changes two years ago.

Mr Miliband said: “You said you were only made aware of this on 23 October and the chancellor said he had no warning. But this is simply not the case.

“The scale of these changes shouldn’t have taken anyone in government by surprise because there were extensive coverage given to significant changes in our national income, arising from the inclusion of the shadow economy worth more than £15bn.”

Mr Miliband said the treasury had been aware of this and wrote to committee seven months ago about the prospective contribution change.

He said: “When you reply, are you really going to maintain there was ‘no warning’ and treasury ministers knew nothing about these changes? Surely, the treasury must have made its own (assessment) of the impact on the EU budget that would follow? As a matter of basic competence, if it didn’t do it, why not?”