Did Rishi never mean to keep his promise?
DURING his failed first attempt to become Tory leader last summer, Rishi Sunak released a typically slick short film to underline his Brexiteer credentials.
To the stirring strains of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy – the EU anthem – the video showed documents being fed into a shredder as a bold promise flashed on the screen.
‘In his first 100 days as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak will review or repeal post Brexit EU laws. All 2,400 of them,’ viewers were told.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Today, funnily enough, is Sunak’s 200th day as Prime Minister. And yet thousands of EU laws remain on our statute books. Now his government has performed an embarrassing U-turn – enraging the Tory Brexiteers who helped sweep him to power – by watering down that inspiring pledge.
Yesterday, in the Commons chamber, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch faced apoplectic fury from Tory Brexiteers as she admitted the ‘Retained EU Law Bill’ would remove only a pitiful 600 EU regulations by the end of the year.
‘Secretary of State, what on earth are you playing at?’ demanded Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group, a cabal of Tory ultra-Brexiteers.
The Bill came to life during Liz Truss’s short- lived administration last year. (Truss, who misjudged so much during her ill-fated premiership, actually set herself a far more realistic target of the end of this year to scrap remaining EU laws.)
Removing Brussels legislation from statute books not only impacts hundreds of policy areas: it is a totemic measure that reassures millions of Leave voters that Britain really has ‘taken back control’.
So where does the blame for this disaster truly lie? There are several culprits.
Originally, the legislation contained a ‘sunset clause’ that would have seen any remaining EU laws automatically deleted by the end of this year.
The decision to jettison this clause was taken not by Badenoch but by the relatively obscure Cabinet sub-committee for Domestic and Economic Affairs. Chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, this reports directly to the Prime Minister and contains representation from every Government department.
Badenoch sat on the committee and had overall responsibility for reviewing EU laws – but individual departments were responsible for working out which laws should be removed.
What’s more, many of those on the committee were impressed by Badenoch’s approach – unlike her predecessor’s. Under Liz Truss’s brief premiership, Jacob Rees-Mogg was the relevant minister on the committee. Last night, one serving minister told me: ‘Jacob wanted to look at all 4,000 pieces of law. Imagine you’re a doctor. Why would a doctor look at every medical aspect of a patient’s body if they only had a broken leg?’
After Rishi came to power, Badenoch took over his responsibilities. Her more forensic style swiftly drew plaudits.
‘The committee started discussing which specific laws would go,’ says my source. ‘Ministers would identify which laws they wanted to lose. It was a very different approach.’ So if Badenoch’s not really to blame, who is?
Well, the Blob certainly played its part in forcing the U-turn. Civil servants raised objections at every juncture. Remainers almost to a man, they wanted no part in a policy that, they claimed, risked watering down workers’ and women’s rights.
THEY were emboldened, of course, by Europhile fanatics in the Lords, including former EU Commissioner Chris Patten, Tory ex-chancellor Ken Clarke and former Labour Europe minister Peter Hain. Last night, Tory MPs were demanding: since when did a clique of unelected peers become defenders of ‘democracy’ against the Government?
Yet there is another – far more uncomfortable – problem for Sunak. The deadline for his eye-catching 100-day pledge passed in February with no real progress.
Why? Because, I have learnt, he had sharply shifted his emphasis behind the scenes. In public, he maintained that he was still committed to scrapping thousands of EU laws by the end of the year. In fact, he had privately dropped his scheme. I am reliably informed that he made that eye-catching promise – and the shredder video – purely to win over Tory activists in the leadership contest against Liz Truss. He never truly meant it.
Brexiteer Tories suspect as much, too, and are now threatening trouble. Those with seats in the ‘ Red Wall’ of former Labour areas, as well as ‘ Spartans’ like Francois, prefer action to words. They won’t tolerate another U-turn.