Sunak ‘surrender’ makes UK poorer, claims Rees-mogg

RISHI SUNAK risks making Britain poorer after “the surrender to the blob”, Jacob Rees-mogg will say today in a keynote speech.

In a stinging attack on the Prime Minister, Mr Rees-mogg will accuse Mr Sunak of breaking a promise to scrap thousands of EU laws that opens him up to allegations of “untrustworthiness”.

The speech, delivered to the National Conservatism Conference beginning in London today, will serve as a rallying cry to eurosceptics in the Tory Party who fear Mr Sunak is watering down pledges made by Boris Johnson in securing his 2019 election victory.

Mr Rees-mogg, who quit the Cabinet after Mr Sunak was elected party leader, will today say that a decision to scrap the deadline of the end of this year for the implementation of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Bill will prevent the UK making economic gains from Brexit.

The Bill would have led to thousands of EU laws being removed from the statute books. Instead, Kemi Badenoch, the Business and Trade Secretary, announced last week that only certain EU laws will be replaced.

Ms Badenoch has blamed the socalled Whitehall “blob”, a mixture of Civil Service obduracy and Establishment orthodoxy, for the U-turn.

Mr Rees-mogg will accuse the Sunak administration of surrendering to it, saying today: “I am worried because we have now abandoned the REUL Bill, despite the clear promise of the PM, this will mean a failure to grasp the economic gains that Brexit can give us.”

He will express his fears that the UK will “once again simply [be] shadowing the European Union” and will warn: “The opportunity that Brexit created to restore the nation is not being taken.”

He will go on: “Sunak made a specific promise to scrap thousands of EU laws. He has broken it. This is unfortunate, as one of his perceived virtues is his trustworthiness and the surrender to the blob risks exposing the Government to ridicule. It also risks making us poorer.”