Rishi Sunak is taking another step towards the pro-Brexit Tories in the party’s leadership race by pledging to break EU rules on financial services, data and clinical trials.
The former chancellor said he would decide within 100 days of becoming prime minister which of the mountain of 2,400 outstanding laws and regulations should go away. He also promises a ‘Big Bang 2.0’ for the City of London.
Mr Sunak’s refusal to cut taxes immediately is a risk given the Conservatives must elect a new party leader, but he points out that – unlike his Remain rival Liz Truss – he has campaigned to leave, despite being warned that “my political career will end”.
And he said: “As Prime Minister, I would go further and faster in using the freedoms that Brexit has given us to reduce the mass of EU regulations and red tape that is holding back our growth.”
The move comes after new research by JL Partners found Mr Sunak was the overwhelming choice of voters in the constituencies the Conservatives need to retain to win the next general election.
The public favors him in 76 percent of the 365 seats won by the party in 2019, the survey found – leaving rivals Tom Tugendhat and Penny Mordaunt trailing badly, with 19 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Ms Truss – who is floundering in the race after being judged to have lost the first televised debate – failed to top the table in either seat, as did Cammy Badenoch.
The policy was revealed after Mr Sunak won an endorsement from the party’s widely regarded ‘Mr North’ figure, influential Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.
But the promised assault on EU law will spark a fresh clash with Brussels if it leads to lower regulatory standards, flouting promises made when the Brexit trade deal was signed.
Last month, the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, Maros Šefčovič, warned of “consequences” if the promised level playing field was tilted, saying the EU would “closely monitor developments”.
Other race developments ahead of a second televised clash on Sunday night:
- Ms Truss has proposed another big tax cut to help people take time off work to look after children or be carers, despite criticism from Mr Sunak that her economic plans are a “fairy tale”
- Mr Tugendhat – the challenger most likely to fall on Monday’s third ballot – insisted he would not give up before then, saying: “I have never turned down a challenge because the odds were against me. I’m not going to start now.”
- Labor has insisted candidates come clean on the spending cuts needed to deliver the promised “billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts”
- The Lib Dems have called on candidates to rule out Boris Johnson’s Cabinet role to ensure they can start to ‘fix our broken politics’
Mr Sunak remains the favorite candidate among Conservative MPs ahead of the next vote, which will be held from Monday to reduce the five survivors to the final two by Wednesday.
But the winner – and the next prime minister – will be chosen by around 180,000 Tory members before Johnson leaves Downing Street on September 6.
The outgoing government is already planning to torch the EU’s ‘reserved law’ in a controversial move that involves using backroom provisions rather than allowing full control and voting.
The former chancellor said he would speed up the process, citing “burdensome” financial services regulations and pledging to “turn London back into the world’s leading financial center by 2027”.
Mr Sunak will also “remove the burden” of EU data laws, which he says are “stopping UK tech companies from innovating and public services being able to share data to reduce crime”.
It will also “accelerate our clinical trial approval process” by creating a single approval service, citing the success of the UK’s Covid vaccine launch.
Mr Sunak said: “In 2016 I was told by my party leadership that if I supported Brexit my political career would be over before it had even started. I supported Brexit regardless because I knew it was the right thing for the country.
“We need to seize these opportunities by abandoning the mass of unnecessary regulations and the low-growth mentality we inherited from the EU.”
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