Government plans to ‘cut £1bn in red tape’ with new post-Brexit legislation
Boris Johnson has announced plans for legislation to make it easier to rip up EU regulations and protections, amid criticism from Conservative MPs that the government has not taken sufficient advantage of Brexit.
The plans claim to cut £1bn in red tape expenses for businesses, but Johnson gave no firm details on which regulations are intended to be repealed or enhanced, instead stating five principles that would be applied, including the value of sovereignty and creating new markets.
Critics said Johnson must make clear whether he intends to target employment protections, and pointed out that businesses and government have already faced billions of pounds of costs as a result of additional red tape due to Brexit itself.
Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for business, said: “If this is the best Boris Johnson can muster up to save his job, then he is in big trouble. Try telling the thousands of lorry drivers stuck in queues at Dover that red tape is being cut.”
A Labour source said: “The key question for the government is which of the proposed changes in regulation depend on the passage of this bill, and if the answer is none, what other changes are they planning that do? Until they can explain all that, we have to ask what the point of this bill is.”
Johnson, who is battling to prevent a no confidence vote in the wake of multiple revelations of lockdown parties in Downing Street, has been criticised in private meetings with MPs that the government has not demonstrated how it is taking advantage of perceived post-Brexit freedoms.
The new law – called the “Brexit freedoms” bill – is intended to make it easier to amend or remove some of the bridging law kept on the statute book after Brexit. No 10 said that, as it
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