Readers of the Daily Mail have expressed their dismay after ‘EU rules’ dictating the shape and curve of bananas are set to remain in the UK.
Ministers announced this week that they have ditched their promise to complete a post-Brexit “bonfire” of remaining EU-era laws by the end of the year.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday they would now revoke around 600 laws under their planned legislation rather than the 4,000 pledged.
She acknowledged there are “risks of legal uncertainty” by automatically scrapping the laws by the end of the year in a sunset clause in the Retained EU Law Bill.
In a written statement to MPs, Badenoch said ministers will amend the Bill to replace the current sunset with a list of 600 EU laws to be revoked by the end of the year.
“We will still fully take back control of our laws and end the supremacy and special status of retained EU law by the end of 2023,” she said.
Among the newly saved laws is EU Regulation No 1333/2011 – governing the ‘standards and requirements in the banana sector’.
Quality standards are needed so that people know what they are buying and that the produce meets their expectations, although to say that ‘straight and bendy’ bananas are banned is a bit of a stretch.
Commission Regulation 2257/94 identifies certain restrictions for fruits that producers have to conform to in order to sell their produce within the EU.
The regulation states that bananas must be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature.”
Reacting to the news that the law is set to stay in the UK, Daily Mail readers fumed over the government’s lack of progress on its ‘bonfire’ of laws.
“That’s it Tories are finished, just who do I vote now?”, one person said, while another accused prime minister Rishi Sunak of being a “fully paid up member of the EU”.
A third said they would “rather get rid of bent politicians than bent bananas”, and a fourth said it is time for Jacob (Rees-Mogg) to “stop shouting and start SCREAMING” to get these laws thrown out.
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