UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has blamed the UK government’s obsession with green ideology for keeping EU laws alive in the country.
The government’s obsession with green ideological goals has prevented it from getting rid of EU laws post-Brexit, the business secretary has reportedly claimed.
A staunch Brexiteer, Badenoch has taken particular aim at the country’s so-called “Net Zero” Secretary, Grant Shapps, claiming that the former Remainer is keen on keeping European laws in place in the hopes of hitting climate targets.
According to a report by The Telegraph, the business secretary has been put under serious pressure by pro-Brexit Tories in the country, many of whom are unhappy with her failure to implement a so-called “bonfire” of EU laws.
Many have hoped that such a mass destruction of European regulations will go a long way to helping businesses in the country, allowing them to operate without being pressured by Brussels bureaucracy.
Badenoch has since claimed however that she has no intent on implementing such a “bonfire”, but instead wanted to implement a far more constrained removal of certain EU laws in the hopes of achieving the same effect.
“It is not the bonfire of regulations — we are not arsonists,” she reportedly said. “I’m certainly not an arsonist. I’m a Conservative.”
However, even this more minor goal is reportedly being met with opposition within the government, with Badenoch describing herself as operating within a so-called “constrained environment” as her fellow Tories attempt to protect EU laws in the hopes of hitting climate targets.
“I’m thinking about the net zero department or transport. They’ve made commitments which are in tension with what I’m trying to do,” she reportedly said, urging her fellow politicians to “[m]ake life easier for people” by allowing her to scrap various EU regulations.
Badenoch has now urged for her fellow Tory MPs to begin writing to cabinet officials urging them to take action against EU law, saying that she is running out of ways to get them to act.
“I don’t have any levers over them, except being charming and asking them to be nice and get rid of things they don’t need,” she said, asking for help with her efforts to “corral” the heads of hostile government departments.
How successful her efforts will be ultimately remains to be seen, though, with one of Badenoch’s recent predecessors — Jacob Rees-Mogg — completely failing to shift UK green politics during his time as business secretary.
Despite managing to briefly undo Britain’s ban on fracking, Rees-Mogg was quickly ousted from his position upon the ascension of Rishi Sunak to the position of Prime Minister, who almost immediately reinstated the prohibition to the delight of green agenda advocates.
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