Truss: I’ll throw off EU chains by end of next year
LIZ Truss last night vowed to unleash Britain’s post-Brexit potential by fully freeing the UK of Europe’s shackles.
In a move designed to pump billions into the economy, the Foreign Secretary set out plans to review 2,400 pieces of legislation left over from Britain’s decades of EU membership by the end of next year.
Those deemed to be holding Britain back will be ditched or replaced with regulations better suited to Britain’s economy.
Campaign sources said the move could save businesses and consumers billions of pounds, and make the UK a more attractive place to invest.
Proposals include scrapping EU rules that prevent pension and insurance firms from investing in British infrastructure – a move ministers believe could unlock billions in private sector capital.
EU import rules could be adjusted or scrapped to cut the cost of food, while a more liberal regulatory regime for gene-edited crops could also allow the production of cheaper food.
Streamlining EU import controls could also cut the cost of goods from around the world, and ‘overbearing’ rules on emerging technology could be relaxed to allow developments such as precision crop spraying by drones to be brought in.
Leftover EU regulations also conback.
‘Deliver on the promise of Brexit’
tinue to ban the sale of more powerful vacuum cleaners and outlaw the use of imperial measures for selling most goods.
Miss Truss said: ‘As prime minister I will unleash the full potential of Britain post-Brexit, and accelerate plans to get EU law off our statute books so we can boost growth and make the most of our new-found freedoms outside of the EU.
‘I have proved as trade secretary and in the Foreign Office that I am the candidate who can be trusted to deliver on the promise of Brexit and make Britain a higher-growth, higher-productivity powerhouse.
‘EU regulations hinder our businesses and this has to change. In Downing Street, I will seize the chance to diverge from outdated EU law and frameworks and capitalise on the opportunities we have ahead of us.’
Although Britain left the EU in 2020, around 2,400 regulations were copied across to the UK statute book to avoid disruption.
Miss Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak is also committed to reviewing remaining EU laws and said this week he would establish a new ‘Brexit Delivery Department’ to get through the regulations in his first hundred days at a rate of one per hour.
Brexit Opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has been pushing for the laws to be reviewed or scrapped in cases where they are holding Britain But the plan was scaled back last month following protests from ministers, including Environment Secretary George Eustice, whose department is responsible for overseeing almost 600 of the regulations, many of which relate to employment and health and safety.
But Miss Truss has now pledged to press ahead with the scheme in full if she wins the leadership contest.
Mr Rees-Mogg said that while many of the regulations appeared ‘marginal’ in isolation, they would ‘combine to usher in a revolution: not a French-style revolution with blood running in the streets and the terror of the guillotine, but a British-style revolution whereby marginal improvements move inch by inch so that soon we will have covered the feet, and the feet will become yards, and the yards will become chains and then furlongs and miles, until the journey is complete’. Meanwhile, Miss Truss faced questions over her tax plans after an economist backing her proposals suggested interest rates could rise as high as 7 per cent. Mr Sunak has warned her plan to slash taxes by more than £35billion could push up interest rates.
But Patrick Minford, an economist cited by Miss Truss, told The Times keeping taxes low was ‘key to growth’. ‘I’m pleased that she has understood the argument,’ he said.
‘Yes, interest rates have to go up and it’s a good thing. A normal level is more like 5 to 7 per cent and I don’t think it will be any bad thing if we got back to that level.’
‘A British-style revolution’