Britain will pay the European Union £850m of the £1.7bn surcharge it had demanded, Chancellor George Osborne has said.
After meeting European finance ministers in Brussels he said the deal - which means the bill will be paid in two interest-free instalments after next year's election - was "far beyond what anyone expected us to achieve".
"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 any mistakes in the bill we will get our money back," he said.
Critics accused Mr Osborne of resorting to "smoke and mirrors", saying that the reduction had been achieved only by bringing forward a rebate to which the UK would have been entitled anyway.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the deal had not saved the UK "a single penny" and accused Mr Osborne and the Prime Minister of "trying to take the British people for fools".
Prime Minister David Cameron claimed it was a victory for Britain and praised his Chancellor for securing the deal.
Sky's Europe Correspondent Robert Nisbet says it appears the EU will still get the full £1.7bn as a result of what he said some would call "clever accounting".
Nisbet explained: "Next year there will be two instalments that will equal £850m that will be paid to Brussels by the UK and it will get its rebate in full. So far, so good.
"But what will happen in 2016 is that an extra rebate based on increased VAT receipts will be used to settle the rest of the bill.
"That allows the EU to claim it's getting its money, the UK to claim it's negotiated a great deal for Britain and for opposition parties to cry foul."
A Number 10 source insisted there was "no guarantee the rebate would have applied to this" before the deal was struck, and added: "Our view is that this is a very good deal."
However, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan suggested the devil was in the detail, saying: "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?
"Britain is worse off in absolute terms, but a straw man has been knocked down. A prelude to how the pro-EU side will fight the referendum."
UKIP leader Nigel Farage wrote on Twitter: "Osborne trying to spin his way out of disaster. UK still paying full £1.7 billion, his credibility is about to nose dive."
Mr Osborne said that EU rules would now be changed forever "so this never happens again", claiming he had got his EU counterparts to agree to changing the system for calculating adjustments to member states contributions.
The PM earlier warned there would be a "major problem" if Brussels insisted on Britain paying the bill in full.
Mr Cameron went on the offensive after a meeting with other European leaders in Finland, saying Britain would not pay "anything like" the full amount ahead of a looming 1 December deadline.
The demand was made by Brussels after a recalculation of Britain's gross national income in relation to other EU states.
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