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Weekly Costs Show London Unprepared for Brexit - Ex-Lib Dem Leader

© REUTERS / Phil NobleA two Euro coin is pictured next to a one Pound coin on top of a portrait of Britain's Queen Elizabeth in this file photo illustration shot March 16, 2016.
A two Euro coin is pictured next to a one Pound coin on top of a portrait of Britain's Queen Elizabeth in this file photo illustration shot March 16, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Weekly spending on legal advisers worth 33,500 pounds ($44,800) a week shows that the British government is ill-prepared for Brexit talks with the European Union, former Liberal Democratic Party leader Nick Clegg said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — His remarks came after UK Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis revealed in response to Clegg's requests that the governmental expenditures on legal advice were estimated at some 269,000 pounds over eight weeks.

"This huge taxpayer-funded Brexit bill for legal advice shows how ill-prepared Whitehall is for what will be the biggest and most complex set of negotiations it has ever attempted," Clegg said, as quoted by The Independent newspaper Thursday.

Clegg added that it would be a hard thing for London to forge new trading relations with Brussels.

"But it is not just legal advice where the Government is ill-prepared – we simply don't have anything like the number of trade negotiators necessary to establish a new trading relationship with the EU or other countries," Clegg added.

On June 23, the nationwide referendum on EU membership was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country leaving the bloc. Brexit supporters have used the migration issue as one of the main arguments to persuade people to vote for leaving the European Union.

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