One political commentator claimed that the Business Secretary was courting “career suicide” by dialling back efforts to invalidate EU rules in the UK.
The UK government announced plans to repeal 600 EU rules by the end of the year, less than the 4,000 pledged in a so-called “Brexit bonfire.”
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch stated that the decision to scale back plans was made by her, not Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Ms Badenoch was endangering her career by accepting responsibility, the commentator said.
Former minister David Mellor said: “She’s committing [career] suicide. She breaks all of the rules in the book.
“First of all she says it is her responsibility and nothing to do with the Prime Minister which I thought was amazing, but also, they came out of the EU due to the argument that the EU is full of red tape and Britain was going to sail the oceans of the world free from all of this.”
He continued: “Now she’s saying, ‘the constraints aren’t too bad and we’re not going to lose too many of them’. This is defiance.
“Kemi Badenoch is obviously bright and she has certainly has self-confidence, which can be a great thing, but it can also be a destroyer of people’s careers, and I think she has too much self-confidence.”
He warned that the Brexit climbdown could impact Ms Badenoch’s future political career prospects.
Mr Mellor explained: “If I was Rishi Sunak, what would I be thinking over my marmalade this morning? Kemi Badenoch is getting a bit too big for her boots.”
Ms Badenoch said she had listened to businesses’ concerns and that her priority was “to tackle the red tape that holds back UK firms, reduces their competitiveness in global markets and hampers their growth”.