Jacob Rees-Mogg Criticizes ‘Idle’ Officials for Delaying ‘Bonfire’ of EU Laws

Jacob Rees-Mogg today continued his attack on the government for downgrading plans to scrap thousands of EU laws and blame ‘idle’ civil servants.

The Conservative Tory Brexiteer criticized Whitehall officials as well as Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for the U-turn in Brussels rules.

Rees-Mogg, a former cabinet minister, insisted that the bourgeoisie’s anger at watering down the withheld EU bill was not due to “capricious Euroscepticism.”

Instead, he stressed that removing leftover EU laws from the UK statute book could help alleviate the cost of living crisis.

But Energy Secretary Grant Shapps and a trio of other Brexit supporters defended the government’s decision to delay removing the withheld EU legislation.

They warned of the “unintended consequences” of moving too fast that could “harm UK interests”.

The Conservative Tory Brexiteer criticized Whitehall officials as well as Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for the U-turn in the Brussels rules.

Energy Secretary Grant Shapps and a trio of other Brexit supporters defended the government’s decision to slow down the removal of withheld EU legislation.

It was recently announced that instead of getting rid of around 4,000 EU laws on hold by the end of this year, as originally planned, the government will only repeal 600 laws by the end of December.

Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge Sunday show, Rees-Mogg highlighted how Sunak had made a specific pledge in his Tory leadership campaign last summer to repeal EU laws withheld in his first 100 days as prime minister.

“The promises that politicians make must be kept, particularly when they are so clear and specific,” said the former business secretary.

Rees-Mogg also responded to claims by the Institute of Government think tank that he had left a “poisoned report” in the form of the withheld EU bill, which he submitted to the House of Commons, for his successors.

“The Institute of Government is effectively the equivalent of Junior Ganymede for civil servants,” he said, referring to the fictional club created by writer PG Wodehouse.

“So I would just hope they would go out and give the civil service line, which has been very idle with this and needs to have worked more.”

Rees-Mogg also insisted that removing the Brussels regulations could boost the UK economy and help combat the ongoing inflation crisis.

“We need to understand what is the point of getting rid of the EU law withheld: this is not about capricious euroscepticism, this is about improving the economy while we are in an inflationary period,” he added.

‘One of the ways to push prices down is to address monetary policy. The Bank of England is doing that and that’s hard for people.

‘The other thing you can do to bring prices down is to free the economy from over-regulation.

“This is making it easier for people to trade and do business and that is a huge missed opportunity, particularly in an inflationary environment.

“It’s the so-called supply-side reforms that we’ve needed for a long time.”

Pressed as to whether he thought Badenoch and Sunak had caved to civil service pressure to slow down the removal of retained EU laws, Rees-Mogg suggested the prime minister’s reshuffle of Whitehall departments could also be to blame. .

‘Grant Shapps was confident that while he was business secretary it could be done, I was confident that it could be done and it seems to me that there has been a considerable loss of momentum in the last three months, partly possibly due to the reorganization of the department ‘, said.

Mr Shapps, appearing on the same programme, defended the Government’s reversal on the withheld EU bill.

‘Those laws are being scrapped. Over 2,000 of whom will be gone by the end of this year,” he said.

“The reality is, as libraries search for more of these laws that were almost leftover pieces of law, more are discovered in the archives, so to speak, and therefore it’s practical to just pass them.

‘Several months have passed since I was commercial secretary and I took care of this process. So more laws will have been discovered because that was the work that was being done.

‘I have full confidence that the current business secretary is analyzing the plethora of these remaining laws, she will have more than 2,000 thrown out by the end of the year. She just announced another 600, I think she’s doing it the right way.’

The government has also received backing from three Brexit Conservatives and former cabinet ministers to slow down the process of removing retained EU legislation from the UK statute book.

In a joint article for the Sunday Express, Liam Fox, David Davis and Andrea Leadsom wrote: “A program to remove EU legislation withheld too quickly risks having unintended consequences that could harm UK interests, for which we will continue to review all our legislation to remove unnecessary burdens on the UK economy as part of a truly Conservative vision of a post-Brexit Britain.”

“We need to get it right, and the clarity provided by the timeline will help,” they added.