The UK's Brexit hostage

“How does the EU cope with losing a substantial net contributor?” said John Springford, the director of research of the Centre for European Reform. “You have to try to find money either from net contributors who aren’t necessarily going to be too keen on that, or from net recipients who are going to receive less money. Obviously, this is going to be nightmarish.”“Britain’s strongest card in the negotiations has always been its sizeable contribution to the EU budget,” Springford wrote in a paper published this week.