Rishi Sunak today vowed to review one EU law an hour for 100 days as the Tory bids to talk tough on Brexit.
Despite voting to leave the EU in 2016, Mr Sunak is being outflanked by ex-Remainer Liz Truss for the backing of Tory Brexiteers.
The Tory leadership contender is still ahead in the MPs’ ballot - but faces a three-way battle with Ms Truss and Penny Mordaunt to make the final two.
Today he tried to get ahead by vowing to review 2,400 EU laws still on the statute book, and have initial recommendations for them all within 100 days.
That works out at 24 EU laws per day.
Mr Sunak wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “As prime minister, I would task a new Brexit Delivery Department with reviewing all of the remaining 2,400 laws on our statute book.
“With the first set of recommendations as to whether each law should be scrapped or reformed being published within my first 100 days in the job.”
Mr Sunak also indicated that he would overhaul EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules and speed up the clinical trials by cutting EU red tape.
His latest intervention comes as the remaining five contenders are preparing for the second TV debate tonight at 7pm on ITV.
The ex-chancellor topped the first two rounds of voting by MPs, but is short of the 120 votes needed to guarantee him a place in the final run-off.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss said she would seek to abolish "Stalinist" housing targets if she was elected.
Rival Tom Tugendhat pledged a massive expansion of the HS2 rail line beyond Manchester, saying: “I would make sure the HS2 tracks went all the way to Scotland."
Penny Mordaunt declared she will give Brits extra cost-of-living help this Autumn - but won’t tell anyone what it is until after she’s in No10.
Contender Liz Truss announced billions of pounds of tax cuts in a hustings on Friday, including reversing corporation tax and National Insurance hikes and pausing green levies on energy bills.
Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat both ruled out leaving the European Convention on Human Rights after Liz Truss left the idea on the table.
Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat both backed the target to hit Net Zero emissions by 2050 but added caveats.
And Mr Tugendhat slammed the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as a “totem” - a symbol - but added it “is necessary”.
Despite pledging a “clean start” he said: “The way it will work is by showing extremely clearly that Britain simply does not tolerate human trafficking and the misery of slavery.”
