Rishi Sunak faces another delicate Brexit decision after he was asked by senior civil servants to delay a planned “bonfire” of legislation dating from the U.K.’s membership of the European Union.
The request by officials to shift the current 2023 deadline to remove 4,000 EU laws from the British statute books by three years is a headache for the prime minister, who said over the summer the legislation could be repealed or reviewed within 100 days.
If the premier gives in to the demands of his officials — who say the task simply can’t be done at such short order — he risks alienating the Brexiteers in the ruling Conservatives like Jacob Rees-Mogg, for whom shredding the legislation is a demand that’s attained totemic status.
