Pledges made by the Conservative Party to scrub Britain’s statute book of unwanted EU laws has suffered a major setback after ministers discovered 1,400 more pieces of legislation.
According to Financial Times reports, Grant Shapps, the new business secretary, is said by allies to be keen to slow down the review of EU laws after ministers realised the true scale of the bureaucratic task.
Instead of the 2,400 EU laws originally cited for review or repeal, officials now believe there are up 3,800 to trawl through.
Jacob Rees-Mogg had previously promoted a retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill as a flagship piece of legislation to maximise what he said were the “opportunities of Brexit”.
The legislation aims to complete the review of 2,400 pieces of retained EU law by the end of next year. Rishi Sunak, in his first bid for the Tory leadership this summer, claimed it could be completed within 100 days.
But the latest discovery has poured cold water on that, prompting this response from former Siemens CEO, Juergen Maier:
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