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"This is smokes and mirrors", says shadow chancellor Ed Balls
Chancellor George Osborne's claim to have halved the UK's £1.7bn EU budget surcharge is "smoke and mirrors" and "spin", Labour and UKIP have said.
The UK will pay two interest-free sums next year totalling £850m, instead of a larger lump sum by 1 December, after a rebate from Brussels due in 2016 appeared to have been brought forward.
Labour's Ed Balls said the deal had not saved UK taxpayers "a single penny".
Other European finance ministers said Britain had not received a discount.
The chancellor said the deal he had secured went "far beyond what anyone expected us to achieve".
'Straw man'But Mr Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: "By counting the rebate Britain was due anyway, they are desperately trying to claim that the backdated bill for £1.7bn has somehow been halved.
"But nobody will fall for this smoke and mirrors. The rebate was never in doubt and in fact was confirmed by the EU Budget Commissioner last month."
The BBC's Europe correspondent Chris Morris said rebates were normally paid a year in arrears, but that Britain had won a concession meaning the money will now be paid in the same year it is due.
Writing on Twitter, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Mr Osborne was "trying to spin his way out of disaster", saying the UK was still going to pay the full £1.7bn.
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"Instead of footing the bill we have halved the bill", George Osborne said
Eurosceptic Tory MEP Daniel Hannan suggested the deal achieved by the chancellor may not represent any reduction in the total amount.
"The EU sticks us with a bill. Ministers double it, apply the rebate, return to the original figure and claim victory. We're meant to cheer," he said.
"Britain is worse off in absolute terms, but a straw man has been knocked down."
Continue reading the main storyThe surcharge follows an annual review of the economic performance of EU member states since 1995, which showed Britain had done better than previously thought.
The demand sparked anger across the political spectrum, with Prime Minister David Cameron insisting the UK would pay nothing by the original 1 December deadline and calling for the overall sum to be renegotiated.
After a four-hour meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels, Mr Osborne hailed an agreement which he said meant the UK would pay a lower sum in two interest-free instalments in July and September 2015.
AnalysisBy Gavin Hewitt, BBC Europe editor
How has the UK reached this figure of £850m?
It has included the figure of the UK rebate which is calculated on the gross national income figures.
The Treasury argues that it was not at all clear that the rebate would have been applied in full and they gained that assurance after intensive discussions with the Commission.
Others argue that the UK rebate for next year was never in doubt and that a rebate which the UK would have got anyway is, in effect, being used to reduce this surcharge payment.
It is the case that these figures were never discussed at the finance ministers' meeting on Friday so the announcement that the UK bill has been halved has been met with some surprise.
EU budget: Devil's in the detail
Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the Britain's rebate would apply to the new contribution being asked for.
"So it's not as if the British have been given a discount," he added.
Mateusz Szczurek, the Polish finance minister, told Radio 4's Today programme that he understood the amount Britain would pay could be counterbalanced by its rebate.
He said the talks on Friday did not concern the "actual amounts" each country would have to pay.
'Result for Britain'Following the Brussels meeting, Mr Osborne said: "Instead of footing the bill, we have halved the bill, we have delayed the bill, we will pay no interest on the bill, and if there are mistakes in the bill we will get our money back.
"We have also changed permanently the rules of the European Union so this never happens again.
"This is far beyond what anyone expected us to achieve and it's a result for Britain."
Asked how this had been achieved, Mr Osborne said the UK's annual rebate from Brussels would be applied in full next year to partially offset the surcharge.
'Good progress'The UK rebate is a system dating back to 1984, negotiated by Margaret Thatcher, that provides the UK with a refund on a part of its contribution to the EU budget. It is calculated on the basis of changes in national income.
Under the initial plan, the UK was due to get a 1bn euros rebate in 2015-6 but it will be allowed to bring that forward to the second half of 2015 to reduce the surcharge.
But its 2016 rebate will be 1bn euros smaller as a result.
Mr Cameron said reducing the amount paid to Brussels was "good progress, and the chancellor has done well".
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