Iain Duncan Smith: Government has done ‘sweet FA’ to cut EU red tape
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Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has said that the government has done “sweet FA” to make the most of the post-Brexit landscape.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Sir Iain said that the UK has huge opportunities in finance and medical research, which the government is not seizing.
He said that we must now take the chance to shift from “burdensome” EU regulation more than two years after the country officially left the union.
Last year, he proposed around 1000 measures to remove red tape through his Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGR).
“The Government has done absolutely sweet FA about this since we delivered the report to them”, Sir Iain told the paper.
Instead, it has been argued that Boris Johnson’s government has actually added to the red tape.
The Regulatory Policy Committee, the Government’s official adviser, estimates his administration added £5.6bn to the regulatory burden on businesses just in the first year after the 2019 election.
The comments come as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič are set to meet in Brussels as efforts continue to agree on how to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The deal prevent a hard Irish border by keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU’s single market for goods.