Sunak’s Climbdown on EU Laws Triggers Angry UK Tory Backlash
- Tory Rees-Mogg compares British premier to Italy’s Borgias
- Pro-Brexit Tory MPs meet Chief Whip to express anger
Rishi Sunak
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images
Rishi Sunak’s retreat from a pledge to scrap all European Union Law sparked a backlash in the ruling Conservative Party, with former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg comparing the UK prime minister to the Borgias — a Renaissance Italian family that became a byword for cruelty, immorality and lust for power.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday that the government will remove a sunset clause from legislation making its way through Parliament that would have removed all EU law from the UK statute book by year-end. When Sunak stood last year for the party leadership, he promised to review or repeal 2,400 EU laws in his first 100 days in office, issuing a campaign video showing EU documents being shredded.