Veteran Brexiteer Sir William Cash has accused the prime minister of only scrapping “trivial” EU laws after the government U-turned on its post-Brexit “bonfire” of regulations last week.
Sir William, who serves as chairman of the European scrutiny committee, has criticised the PM in a letter following the government’s decision to water down the axing of 4,000 EU-era regulations by the end of the year. Under the new approach, just 600 laws will now be revoked.
Sir William told Mr Sunak that “almost without exception” the 600 laws which are now being targeted for removal relate to “matters that are trivial, obsolete and are not legally and/or politically important”.
He said that therefore the government’s new plans “cannot be construed as lightening the regulatory burden for businesses or spurring economic growth”.
Sir William’s letter sets out examples of the “trivial” laws which he said are being revoked, these include:
- temporary exemptions to repealed EU rules on limits to working hours for drivers during the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak;
- quota rules for the import of 8,000 tonnes of wheat bran originating in the ACP States into the French overseas territory of Réunion;
- the setting of fishing opportunities for anchovy in the Bay of Biscay for the 2011/2012 fishing season.
In the letter, Sir William requests a full update on the status of the government’s “Brexit opportunities work” and calls for an “appearance of the secretary of state [Kemi Badenoch] before the [European scrutiny] committee in good time”.
Sir William’s letter comes after the government last Wednesday confirmed that they were ditching the retained EU law bill’s “sunset clause” and that the mass exodus of EU legislation would not go ahead as planned. The move was confirmed by business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch in a written ministerial statement.
Opposition parties described the change as a “humiliating U-turn” and the remaining EU retained law bill as a “sinking ship”.
Ms Badenoch said in the written statement that the government was moving forward with “a new approach” that would “replace the current sunset in the bill with a list of the retained EU laws that we intend to revoke under the bill at the end of 2023”.
She added: “This provides certainty for business by making it clear which regulations will be removed from our statute book, instead of highlighting only [EU laws] that would be saved”.
She stated only 600 laws would be revoked under their legislation rather than the 4,000 pledged, insisting it is “about more than a race to a deadline”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who drew up the original bill as a government minister, immediately accused the prime minister of breaking his promise on post-Brexit legislation.
He said: “the written ministerial statement breaks the prime minister’s clear promise to review or appeal all EU laws in his first hundred days”, adding: “This is an admission of administrative failure”.
In an urgent question in the House of Commons on Thursday, the business secretary was challenged by leading Brexiteers including Sir William Cash and chair of the European Research Group of eurosceptic Conservative MPs Mark Francois, who asked why the government had performed “a massive climbdown on its own bill despite having such strong support from its backbenchers”.
Ms Badenoch defended the amendment to the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill, saying: “If we delete the laws from the statute book we will be starting from scratch in terms of bringing in the reforming primary legislation. This is a better approach.
“It was my suggestion to the prime minister, I’m very pleased that he accepted it and I am very proud to be standing here at the dispatch box showing that those of us who are Brexiteers can be pragmatic and do what is right for the British people.”
