Jacob Rees-Mogg promotes the opportunities of ‘not getting Brexit done’

Editorial: The government has accepted that there is an economic cost to leaving the EU. This is progress of a sort

It seems the Brexiteers have finally given up on the pretence that leaving the EU would do anything other than impose higher costs on the British people

(Reuters)

It has come to something when Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for “Brexit opportunities” in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, sounds like an Independent editorial.

But on Thursday, when Mr Rees-Mogg announced that planned border checks on food coming to the UK from the European Union had been scrapped, he said the controls “would have been an act of self-harm”.

In a written statement, he said: “The remaining import controls on EU goods will no longer be introduced this year – saving British businesses up to £1bn in annual costs.” In other words, not getting Brexit done would save British consumers a significant amount of money.