17 February 2021

FT: ‘Slash and burn’ of EU rules ruled out post-Brexit

Boris Johnson’s adviser on regulatory reform, Iain Duncan Smith, has said he will not lead a “slash-and-burn exercise” when it comes to changing Britain’s post-Brexit rules. Duncan Smith’s comments chime with warnings from business leaders that they do not want the UK prime minister to oversee a “bonfire” of EU red tape and instead want to see him focus on ensuring the government becomes “nimbler” at making new rules.

The idea of a post-Brexit conflagration, laying waste to what they see as stifling Brussels regulation, has been a staple of Eurosceptic discourse for years, but it is being quietly doused by the government. Instead Johnson and his chancellor Rishi Sunak are intensifying efforts to explain exactly how they will use their post-Brexit freedoms in future, urging business leaders to help fill in the blank canvas.

Business groups report being “badgered” by Downing Street to come up with ideas for regulatory reform, while MPs led by Duncan Smith are seeking ideas to present to Johnson by May. You cast around and find virtually nothing anyone wants to repeal. Then you find there was a reason it was put there in the first place Former Tory cabinet minister

One business leader said: “We don’t want a bonfire of regulations. If they want to cut red tape, they should start with the new burdens exporters are facing at the borders after Brexit.” Duncan Smith, chair of Johnson’s innovation, growth and regulatory reform task force, said his group would be proposing “fast and sensible” regulatory reforms, drawing on English common law principles. “You need people to take responsibility — we intervene when necessary,” the former Conservative leader told the Financial Times.

His group was looking to future regulation, rather than a “slash-and-burn” approach to what was already on the statute book. The idea of ripping up existing EU rules is largely unpopular with companies — which have already incorporated them into their business models — and is potentially politically toxic. Kwasi Kwarteng, new business secretary, ordered his staff to stop reviewing EU rules on working time after the Financial Times revealed that the exercise was under way. “The review is no longer happening,” he said.

Ed Miliband, shadow business secretary, said: “Businesses are not crying out for worse workers’ rights, lowered environmental protections or the erosion of standards. The red tape they are most concerned about is the new bureaucracy at the border.”

more at FT

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