Chopped... ‘insane’ EU law on insuring mowers

MINISTERS have hailed a new Brexit dividend by scrapping ‘insane’ new EU rules that would have required ride-on mowers, golf buggies and mobility scooters to be insured.

A judgment passed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would have widened the number of vehicles that require insurance, but UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is to shelve the ‘over-the-top’ rules.

Officials said the law would have had the knock-on effect of hitting drivers with a £50 average hike in annual car insurance premiums.

Mr Shapps said: ‘We have always disagreed with this over-the-top law that would only do one thing – hit the pockets of hard-working people up and down the country with an unnecessary hike in their car insurance.

‘We no longer need to implement it. Scrapping this rule will save the country billions of pounds and is part of a new and prosperous future in which we set our own rules.’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously called the new rules ‘insane’ and a ‘perfect example of both the over-regulation that has sapped the competitiveness of the EU… and the judicial activism of the ECJ’.

Implementing the law, which the UK would have had to do had we stayed in the European Union, would have cost the British insurance industry nearly £2billion – with the cost being passed on to the public through higher premiums.

The Government said last night it will be introducing primary legislation to overturn the EU rules at the ‘earliest possible opportunity’.