Mark Francois has torn into business secretary Kemi Badenoch over the government’s “massive climbdown” on Brexit.
The staunch Tory Brexiteer attacked the cabinet minister over their failure to scrap more EU laws.
Badenoch took responsibility for ditching the government’s commitment to scrub all remaining EU law from the UK’s statute book by 2023.
Ministers originally promised a “sunset” clause on all laws carried over from the EU by the end of 2023 under its Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
However, only around 600 laws will be revoked rather than the 4,000 pledged.
Badenoch insisted it was her and not the prime minister who made the decision.
Francois told her there had been a majority of Tory support for the bill, adding: “Why, then, when it’s gone to the House of Lords has the government performed a massive climbdown on its own bill despite having such strong support from its own back benches?
“Secretary of State, what on earth are you playing at?”
Badenoch told him she was not somebody “who gets pushed around lightly” and added: “The fact is I went in and looked at the detail, and I decided this was the best way to deliver it.”
“I will stress again this was not the prime minister’s decision,” she added.
Brexiteer MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dominic Raab ramped up their attacks on civil servants, suggesting their “idleness” was to blame.
Meanwhile, Downing Street was forced to declare the PM is a man of his word after scaling back his promised “bonfire” of EU-era laws.
Sunak’s official spokesman insisted there was a “clear deadline” for revocation for some laws by the end of the year and that “of course we will continue with further removal beyond that”.
Downing Street accepted there are “varying views across the house on this approach” amid the backlash.