EU ‘bendy banana’ law is NOT on list of regulations to be scrapped after Brexit U-turn

EU rules on the shape and roundness of bananas are among the Brussels laws that will remain.

Brexiteers were outraged yesterday after the government reversed plans to scrap thousands of Brussels rules by the end of this year.

One of the newly rescued laws is EU Regulation No. 1333/2011 – which regulates the ‘standards and requirements in the banana sector’, That reports the Sun.

The piece of legislation ensures top-class bananas are free of any “abnormal curvature of the fingers.”

Meanwhile, Class I and II grades of the staple fruit are allowed with defects in their shape.

Some 600 pieces of EU legislation are being reversed in the UK, but ministers have withdrawn their promise to scrap thousands more – including the banana rule.

Jacob Rees-Mogg yesterday denounced Rishi Sunak for scaling back the promised ‘bonfire’ of EU laws, claiming the prime minister was ‘acting like a Borgia’.

The ex-cabinet minister, who advocated abolishing leftover Brussels rules when he was company secretary, led a Brexiteer backlash against Sunak for breaching the key pledge.

Mr Rees-Mogg compared the Prime Minister to a member of the House of Borgia – a wealthy family notorious for treachery, corruption and immorality during the Italian Renaissance.

During his Tory leadership campaign last summer, Sunak pledged to review or repeal 2,400 retained EU laws in his first 100 days as prime minister.

Finally reaching number 10 at the end of October, Mr Sunak was sticking to a deadline to scrap the EU regulations still on UK law books by the end of this year.

But yesterday it was announced that instead of scrapping thousands of pieces of EU legislation, with a total of 4,829 now enacted, the government will repeal only 600 laws by the end of December.

Senior Tory Brexiteers have taken out their anger at Mr Sunak over his watering down of the aims of the law preserve EU law (withdrawal and reform).

Mr Rees-Mogg, who introduced the bill to the House of Commons last summer, led the outcry against the Prime Minister’s decision.

Yesterday he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Politicians need to stick to what they said they will do.

“When Rishi Sunak stepped down (as chancellor), in his letter of resignation to Boris Johnson, he said he believed the public is ready to hear the truth – our people know that if something is too good to be true, it isn’t true .

“He then said something that people like me wanted to hear, and didn’t deliver it.

“I’m afraid there’s no point in being holier than you if you act like a Borgia.”

Other senior Tory Brexiteers also expressed anger in the House of Commons later yesterday morning, when Secretary of State Kemi Badenoch was questioned about the government’s U-turn.

Sir Bill Cash described the move as a ‘fundamental change in government policy’.

He was disappointed that Ms Badenoch had failed to consult MPs on the U-turn after the House of Commons passed the bill in January, which is now in the House of Lords.

“The amendments have not been subject to any analysis or questioning by this House, which is essential now given the fundamental change in government policy,” Sir Bill told MPs.

“This Parliament is being treated in a way that is clearly inconsistent with clear promises already made.”

Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, accused the government of a ‘massive climb down’ and asked Ms Badenoch: ‘What the hell are you playing with?’

The business secretary told MPs she had decided to focus on the repeal of 600 laws as the “best way to implement” post-Brexit law reform and stressed that it was “not the prime minister’s decision” to do so.

Ms Badenoch has blamed Whitehall officials for the move, saying she inherited a situation where the focus was on what laws should be enforced, “rather than pursuing the meaningful reform that government and business want to see ‘.

But former Justice Minister Dominic Raab, who resigned as deputy prime minister last month after he was found to have bullied officials, urged Ms Badenoch to “oppose the backlash in Whitehall that suggests it can’t be done”.

Ms Badenoch acknowledged yesterday that there are ‘risks of legal uncertainty’ in having the copied EU laws automatically scrapped by the end of the year through a sunset clause in the bill.

She said ministers will amend the bill passing through parliament to replace the current expiry clause with a list of 600 EU laws to be repealed by the end of the year.

Another 500 pieces of retained EU law would be repealed by other means, the minister claimed, but it was unclear whether that would happen before the end of the year.

It was estimated that about 3,700 laws would need to be struck down, but government departments have now identified about 4,829 retained laws.

Ms Badenoch said around 1,000 have already been scrapped or amended, although government records show that 906 EU laws have been dealt with so far and only 245 of them have been repealed.

Since 2021, there has been a government audit of retained EU legislation – to identify where the Brussels rules need to be scrapped, replaced or updated.