Sunak vows to ditch EU laws holding Britain back
Ex-chancellor attempts to woo Brexiteer vote with promise to trigger ‘Big Bang 2.0’
RISHI SUNAK today brandishes his Brexiteer credentials as he promises a bonfire of European Union laws “getting in the way” of British businesses, to trigger a new “Big Bang”.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, the former chancellor pledges that by the time of the next election he will have “scrapped or reformed all of the EU law, red tape and bureaucracy that is still on our statute book and slowing economic growth” if he succeeds Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Mr Sunak says he would task a Brexit minister and new Brexit Delivery Department with reviewing all 2,400 EU laws that were transferred over to the UK statute book after the country’s exit from the EU. He will demand the first set of recommendations as to whether each law should be scrapped or reformed, “within my first 100 days in the job”.
The announcement is designed to woo pro-Brexit MPs and Tory members as Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, and Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, battle to win crucial votes from Brexiteers before the final ballots of MPs this week.
It is one of five interventions in this newspaper in which each of the candidates to lead the Conservative Party set out their stalls.
In another article, Mrs Badenoch says she would bring down levels of immigration to reduce pressure on housing and the NHS – in a bold pitch to MPs on the Right of the party.
Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, says his “dream” of his children being able to afford their own home is “turning into a nightmare” as he sets out proposals on housing and warns: “We simply have to build more homes.”
Ms Truss and Mrs Badenoch have both promised to slash red tape in order to boost growth, with the Foreign Secretary warning today that “Whitehall orthodoxy” has been holding back major reform. She pledges to overhaul financial rules that tie the hands of insurers and free up pension funds to be able to invest in high tech start-ups.
Specific pledges by Mr Sunak include overhauling retained EU regulations “to trigger a Big Bang 2.0” for the City, with Mr Sunak’s team saying that he would set a target “to make London once again the world’s leading financial centre by 2027”. Mr Sunak also states that he would replace the EU-derived GDPR data laws with “the most dynamic data protection regime in the world” and cut red tape slowing down clinical trials.
Mr Sunak backed the Leave campaign in 2016 but is claimed to have taken a softer approach to negotiations with the EU than Ms Truss, who supported Remain during the referendum.
Today, Sir Bill Cash, the veteran Brexiteer who has been an MP since 1984, backs Ms Truss’s campaign in an article for this newspaper in which he likens the Foreign Secretary and Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, to Margaret Thatcher. He urges Brexiteers to unite behind Ms Truss to “save our precious Union and win the next General Election”. “Margaret Thatcher would agree,” Sir Bill adds.
But Mr Sunak says: “I strongly believe that I made the right decision in backing the Leave campaign.
“Because of Brexit, 21st century Britain will be a sovereign, global, freetrading nation – with full control over its laws, regulations and international trade policy.
“While we got Brexit done, however, there is so much more to do now to capitalise on the freedoms it gave us and to ditch the mass of thousands of
unnecessary EU laws and regulations holding us back.
“Today I make a promise. If I am elected Prime Minister, by the time of the next General Election, I will have scrapped or reformed all of the EU law, red tape and bureaucracy that is still on our statute book and slowing economic growth.”
Mr Sunak adds: “As Prime Minister, I would task a new Brexit Delivery Department with reviewing all of the remaining 2,400 laws on our statute book – with the first set of recommendations as to whether each law should be scrapped or reformed being published within my first 100 days in the job.
“We need to remove power from faceless regulators and give that power to MPs in our Parliament.
“I would demand results from the Civil Service and Government, with my Brexit Minister producing an annual public report on the progress towards delivering our growth opportunities, and the scrapping or reforming of the other 2400 EU laws still on our statute book.”
Mr Sunak’s pledges “radical reform” of the EU’s Solvency II rules to “help investors and insurers put money into assets like infrastructure that stimulate growth and will reap long-term rewards for our country.” He says the move would trigger a second “Big Bang” – in a reference to the sudden deregulation of the City in 1986 – and follows work that he began as chancellor.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson were preparing to reform the rules, and had been working with regulators to achieve the change. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, has said “the case for reform is clear” and Ms Truss has hinted at similar reforms as part of her
‘We need to remove power from faceless regulators and give that power to MPs in our Parliament’
leadership campaign.
Mr Sunak says: “Our success with getting the Covid vaccines approved showed how we can move faster outside the EU, saving millions of lives as a result.
“We should now replicate that success in other areas with a streamlined, single approval service for UK clinical trials – making it simpler, safer and faster than the system we inherited from the EU. Ultimately, the best way to get the cost of living under control is to grow the economy by increasing productivity.”