I AM pleased that the EU has issued an ultimatum of two weeks to the UK to come up with a sum that we would be willing to donate as a parting gift or the EU will walk away from the talks on a trade deal.

In response, the UK should give the EU an ultimatum to come up with the terms of trade deal or we will similarly walk away from the negotiating table.

And the UK should inform the EU that if the above matters are not agreed within the two week timetable, then the UK will exit the EU within four weeks and cease to pay £350m-a-week to prop up the EU.

Then the UK could spend £150m-a-week on subsidies of our own and the other £200m on things like the NHS and not on hair-brained EU schemes such as breeding better cattle in Argentina or fatter hedgehogs in Peru.

By leaving the EU in six weeks, the NHS would not have to wait for the money until March 2019, or beyond, due to the idiotic scheme to extend the deadline by a transition period of a further two years.

The UK is the second largest net contributor to the EU finds so the EU would rapidly disintegrate as it became bankrupt, which could mean that the UK might lose some of its past contributions which the EU has used to fund the European Central Bank, but that would be a small price to pay compared to the savings of being free from the EU.

RW Alexander, Darlington