Welcome to online EU law bonfire, says Rees-mogg

JACOB REES-MOGG has unveiled a website that enables Britons to “count down” to the scrapping of the more than 2,000 EU laws still in force in the UK.

The Brexit Opportunities minister said he hoped the “dashboard” would encourage the general public to suggest other rules to axe.

But he admitted the site, which is heavy on jargon, could prove difficult for many to understand and may need improving.

“I accept that not everybody is going to have the time or inclination to do this but I think it helps show the scale” of retained EU law, he said.

The dashboard reveals that Defra, transport, business, and the Treasury are the Government departments drowning in the most Brussels red tape.

Mr Rees-mogg praised the ministers in charge of the first three for being “very enthusiastic” about potential reforms. “There has, it is fair to say, been more enthusiasm from some secretaries of state” than others at the prospect of scrapping EU law, he added.

Admitting he has faced resistance, he said one department had told him it only wanted to remove 2 per cent of the Brussels rules it adhered to.

“That’s hopeless. That’s ‘let’s just keep everything as it is and not really try’. We want to make sure … all the unnecessary ones are removed.”

The dashboard reveals that of the 2,418 laws copied and pasted onto the UK statute books on Brexit day, 2,006 have been left unchanged. Of the remainder, 196 have been repealed entirely, 183 have been amended and 33 have been replaced by British legislation.

Mr Rees-mogg defended the pace of change and said the Covid pandemic had delayed plans to eliminate Brussels’ red tape.

He said ministers are targeting “unnecessary” laws on lorry driver training and food standards but insisted Britain won’t become the “wild west”.

In a speech to the Commons he also pledged to use Brexit freedoms to tackle inflation and the cost of living crisis.