Rishi Sunak is under fire from Brexiters after breaking ‘frivolous’ EU era laws

Nigel Farage, a driving force behind Britain’s departure from the EU, has declared that Brexit has “failed”, as Eurosceptics rail against the government’s failure to enact EU legislation or cut migration.

Former UKIP leader Farage told the BBC he blamed the Conservative government for failing to deliver Brexit, including controlling migration. news night Program: “Brexit has failed.”

Downing Street insisted Brexit supporter Rishi Sunak thought Britain’s departure from the European Union had been a success, citing Britain’s ability to shape its own agricultural policies as an example of the benefits.

Opinion polls have recorded a major decline in support for Brexit in recent months. This year one suggested that the only area of ​​Britain where a majority of people still thought Brexit was a good idea was in a corner of East Lincolnshire.

But Tory MPs are relenting as net legal migration has hit record levels and Sunak has ordered a U-turn on a previous pledge that all EU-era laws would be reviewed or repealed by the end of 2023 .

Sunak was accused by a senior Tory Eurosceptic of merely throwing out “trivial” or obsolete laws at the Brexiteers’ long-promised “bonfire of Brussels red tape”.

Sir Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, scoffed at a list of 600 pieces of EU-derived legislation identified for repeal by ministers by the end of 2023.

He said the list included quota rules related to the import of wheat bran in the French department of Réunion and the establishment of fishing opportunities in the Bay of Biscay for the 2012 fishing season.

Cash also highlighted measures related to fishing in São Tomé and Príncipe, as more than 150 EU regulations related to fishing have been repealed.

Another measure related to “the limit on working hours for drivers during the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak,” Cash said.

Conservative Eurosceptics are furious with Sunak for undermining the Regulation of European Union Legislation (REUL) bill, which will face further scrutiny in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who drafted the original bill, has Accused Sunak Behaving like the Borgia family, which was synonymous with treachery in 15th and 16th century Italy.

Sunak has scrapped the “sunset clause” under which all EU-era bills must be reviewed or scrapped by the end of 2023, in favor of a schedule of 600 pieces of legislation.

But in a letter to Sunak, Cash said his committee’s initial evaluation of the program found that “almost without exception” the measures contained in it were “frivolous, obsolete and not legally and/or politically significant”. “.

“The repeal of this REUL cannot be construed as lightening the regulatory burden for businesses or promoting economic growth,” Cash wrote.

Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, announced the backlash last week, arguing that a rush to review or scrap all EU law by the end of the year was unrealistic and undesirable.

Business groups, trade unions and charities warned that the extremist rush to scrap EU laws could jeopardize valuable protections for consumers, workers and the environment.

As well as scrapping specific laws, the groups warn that the bill still delegates so-called Henry VIII powers to ministers who would be able to replace EU-derived laws without proper scrutiny in future.

Greener UK, a coalition of the UK’s 10 largest conservation groups including the RSPB and the National Trust, said the list of 600 laws scheduled for deletion also raised specific concerns in the areas of water management and air pollution control.

Employment groups also warned that the government’s commitment to remove the “supremacy” of EU law from the UK legal system would create enormous uncertainty as it would remove the legal precedents on which UK courts have based their decisions. .

Trade union umbrella organization TUC said the bill also laid the groundwork for the government to reduce long-established protections on working hours and holiday pay. TUC general secretary Paul Novak said the government was “secretly undermining working time protections”.