Climbdown on bonfire of EU laws sparks fury among Brexiteers

Kemi Badenoch scraps sunset clause on EU retained law bill, and Jacob Rees-Mogg declares: ‘The blob has triumphed’

The government has announced a major climbdown over its Brexit plans to remove EU laws from British statute books by the end of the year.

The EU Retained Law Bill currently going through parliament was due to automatically delete any European legislation at the end of 2023 – unless it was explicitly chosen to be saved.

But ministers on Wednesday quietly confirmed that they were gutting the bill’s “sunset clause” and that the mass deletion would not go ahead as planned.