EU gave us 'very funny numbers': Rees-Mogg on new post-Brexit laws

24 June 2022, 11:59 | Updated: 24 June 2022, 15:17

'We've got very funny numbers': Rees-Mogg on 'ridiculous' EU laws

By Fiona Jones

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities, has revealed some of the EU laws he wants to scrap, highlighting changing the signage of the Dartford Tunnel as one of the items that 'jumped out' at him.

It comes after the launch of his Brexit 'dashboard' which provides a platform for Britons to voice which EU regulations should be scrapped moving forward.

LBC's Rachael Venables asked Mr Rees-Mogg to name some "ridiculous" laws he is eager to see removed from the 2,400 publicised on the site.

Discussing road signs in tunnels, Mr Rees-Mogg said: "In and of itself it is trivial...so if you go through the Dartford Tunnel, there have been signs saying how you get out of it every 25 metres.

"In this country we used yards for road signs so the signs say 121 yards in one direction and 152 yards in the other. We've got very funny numbers and this is all because of EU regulation hitting UK law and coming up with an odd answer.

"But this isn't the only one. When you look through it, the amount of things we regulate, the detail of things we regulate. You ask: 'Why are we doing that?' If the equipment is safe and works, why does it need a product specific regulation?"

This was a significant week for Brexit, with Thursday marking the sixth anniversary of the referendum.

Additionally, the Northern Ireland protocol, originally agreed in 2018, is under scrutiny and a second reading of the bill is expected to take place in Westminster on Monday.

Yesterday former minister Lord Frost said the true economic impact of Brexit may never be known.

Lord Frost, who negotiated the Brexit deal before resigning over the Government's broader direction, said: "I'm not sure it is ever going to be clear in that sense whether it's succeeded or failed because so much else is going on and extracting the causality about this is always going to be extremely difficult."

Appearing at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank's annual conference on Wednesday, Lord Frost insisted Brexit was working, although it was still unfinished.

He said: "We have no cause for regrets about the decision the country has taken and the solutions to the remaining problems are not to be found in going backwards, but in completing the process and following through on its logic."

On the economic impact, Lord Frost said there was "a huge amount of noise in the figures" from the pandemic, supply chain disruption and the war in Ukraine, making it "hard to be confident what if any changes in UK trade are due to Brexit".

While he noted that there had been "some transitional impact on trade", he said comparisons with other major economies suggested there was "no obvious Brexit-related lag".

But he urged Brexit supporters to be "honest" about the "trade-offs" involved in leaving the EU instead of "pretending nothing is going on".