UK Government’s U-turn over EU legislation sparks uproar among Brexiteers, as over 3,000 EU rules are set to stay, including the infamous banana law.
In a contentious move that has riled up the British political scene, the UK Government announced it will continue to follow over 3,000 EU laws, including the notorious Regulation No 1333/2011 that governs the “marketing standards and requirements in the banana sector”.
This comes in stark contrast to the Brexit promise of slashing EU bureaucracy and has been labelled as a “screeching U-turn” by prominent figures, including Conservative MP and GB News Presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Earlier in the week, the Government confirmed the abandonment of its plan to purge all EU laws from the UK statute book by the year’s end. Instead, only 600 rules and regulations initially introduced during Britain’s tenure in the EU will be axed, a far cry from the Brexit mandate.
This controversial pivot has not gone down well with staunch Brexiteers. Sunak, who had pledged to reduce the amount of EU red tape within his first 100 days in office, is now at the receiving end of criticism.
Rees-Mogg remarked, “His words and his deeds are not matching. That is a dangerous position for a Prime Minister to be in.”
On the other hand, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch defended the decision, asserting that the call to retain most EU laws was her own, not the Prime Minister’s.
“I am not somebody who gets pushed around lightly. I looked at the detail and decided this was the best way to deliver it,” she said.
Despite the controversy, the ‘banana law’ remains, stipulating that top-tier “extra class” bananas must be free from “abnormal curvature of the fingers”, a requirement that many Britons find absurdly bureaucratic.
The U-turn decision marks a critical juncture in post-Brexit Britain, challenging the promises of autonomy and self-governance that the Brexit campaign championed.
As the dust settles on this development, Britain remains entangled in EU’s legislative network, raising concerns about the country’s sovereignty in the post-Brexit era.
