Remainer civil servants ‘thwarting reforms’
‘Some of the biggest battles you face as a minister are, in the nicest possible way, with Whitehall and internally’
SOME civil servants are resisting postBrexit reforms because they cannot imagine “life outside of the EU”, the Attorney General claims today.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Suella Braverman says there is a “great opportunity to peel back ... onerous rules and bureaucracy to actually help the consumer”, as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU.
However, she says some of her “biggest battles” in government are with officials, rather than “political battles” in the House of Commons.
“That was something I didn’t expect, if I’m honest,” says Mrs Braverman, who campaigned for Brexit in 2016.
Elsewhere in the interview, she accuses organisations such as the Halifax of letting a “collective frenzy” over some gender rights “take hold of common sense” and she speaks of her fears as an MP and a mother of the “gender dysphoria spreading by social contagion” through schools.
She also rejects demands by some pro-Brussels rebels for a new “meaningful vote” provision in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and she signals a potential constitutional clash with the Scottish Government over a change, being prepared by Nicola Sturgeon, that would make it easier for people to change their legal sex in Scotland.
Boris Johnson identified post-Brexit deregulation as a key mission of the Government, and the 2019 Conservative manifesto promised a “Red Tape Challenge” that would ensure that regulation is “sensible and proportionate”, and to use “our new freedom after Brexit to ensure that British rules work for British companies”, she says.
Examples of EU law retained on the Westminster statute book include key elements of the UK’s VAT regime, which remains underpinned by the Brussels definition of “business” and the EU legal concept of “abuse”. Brexiters fear that, under the status quo, UK rules
would change according to relevant rulings by the European Court of Justice, with ministers having to adopt domestic versions of EU legal concepts.
Mrs Braverman says the Brexit Opportunities Bill will be “absolutely critical” for deregulation and make it easier for ministers to rip up or adapt retained EU laws. But she adds: “I’ve learnt, not only during my time as Attorney but also during my time as a Brexit minister ... Some of the biggest battles you face as a minister are, in the nicest possible way, with Whitehall and internally with civil servants, as opposed to your political battles in the chamber.
“There are thousands of civil servants. In large part, they are brilliant. They work really hard. I’m supported, in particular, by a team of brilliant lawyers and officials ... Don’t take this as an opportunity to bash the Civil Service. But what I have seen, time and time again, [is] that there is a Remain bias.
“I’ll say it. I have seen resistance to some of the measures that ministers have wanted to bring forward.
“Because there’s an inability to conceive of the possibility of life outside of the EU.”