During Sunak's first stab at becoming party leader in August last year, he promised to 'shred' 2400 EU laws in his first 100 days in office. There's a video on YouTube of him making his pledge, which you can see below. It was a pitch to the hard-right, the Rees-Mogg supporters among party members, and of course, an offer to match or better that of his rival Liz Truss. As we know, he lost that battle and it wasn't until Truss and Kwarteng engaged in a bit of self-immolation a few weeks later that he got into No 10. That was on 25 October last year.
His 100 days were up on 2 February but there was no sign of this pledge being met:
In fact, as early as 27 October, The FT was reporting that he had "toned down his zeal for the speedy axing of EU legislation, amid warnings that such an exercise could tie up hundreds of civil servants at a time of national crisis."
The Brexit delivery unit he had spoken of two months before would not be created with an aide admitting, “The time for changes in the machinery of government has passed.”
"Rishi Sunak’s 'bonfire' of EU laws will be delayed by six months under plans being considered by ministers."
"The prime minister had pledged to scrap, amend or retain all EU-derived laws on Britain’s statute books by the end of the year. However, officials are struggling to cope with the scale of the task given that 4,000 laws are potentially affected.
"There are concerns that mistakes could be made with far-reaching consequences in any continued attempt to hit the December 31 deadline. No 10 is said to be weighing up a six-month extension, meaning the pledge would still be fulfilled before the next election, which must take place before January 2025.
"The policy now falls under Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary. A Whitehall source said that it would be an “easier sell” if Badenoch implemented the delay because she is a committed Brexiteer.
Any delay would be politically sensitive. Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, both believe that plans to scrap EU law are key to delivering the benefits of Brexit."
It's also claimed that the government is looking at making concessions to try to avoid a damaging defeat in the Lords, one being the publication of a list of all the EU-derived laws that will be scrapped, meaning that the remainder would either be retained as they are or amended. At least then we would be able to see what they're up to.
My guess is the list for scrapping would range from the totally irrelevant to the absolutely trivial at best, revealing that Brexit has been little more than a big con. No EU laws are holding us back.
The Times put it slightly differently saying they have learned the list of EU-derived laws to be “sunsetted” is "unlikely to be contentious. with the majority merely technical and of little relevance to UK legislation.
A government spokesman said: “The Retained EU Law Bill will enable us to amend or remove burdensome retained EU law and ensure we can create the best regulatory environment in the UK to drive economic growth, boost innovation and develop a competitive advantage in future technology."
“The programme to review, revoke and reform retained EU law is underway and there are no plans to change the sunset deadline.”
So, there you have it. The REUL Bill far from being the Great all-encompassing Repeal Bill that would allow Britain to enter the 'phone booth and emerge as a stripped-down, low-regulation, high-output economy has become a mere tidying-up exercise with more or less zero impact on life in GB and even less in NI.
The idea that getting shut of a few irrelevant EU laws which had no effect on anyone is somehow 'key to delivering the benefits of Brexit' is even more laughable now than it was delusional before.
But if there is nothing tangible to be gained by doing it, why do it at all?
I assume Brexiteers will make a lot of noise and the likes of John Longworth and David Campbell-Bannerman will take to Twitter and denounce it all, but the ERG is in a weakened state after the Windsor Framework and I assume that sooner or later Sunak will make the final course change to complete the U-turn, scrap the Bill altogether, and it will be another nail in Brexit's coffin.
What a total waste of time.
