Britain paid record $30 bn to EU in 2011

London, Aug 1 (IANS) British taxpayers paid a record 19.2 billion pounds ($30 billion) to the European Union last year, The Sun reported Wednesday

Official statistics reveal that the British payments to Brussels rose by around 1.7 billion pounds in the last two years.

The British daily said Britain gets 8.4 billion pounds back in subsidies, but British net contribution in 2011 was still a record 10.8 billion pounds -- up from 6.8 billion pounds in 2009.

The rise was fuelled by the last Labour government's decision to sacrifice a big chunk of the EU rebate.

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