Sunak Backs Down on Election Promise to Review EU Laws Within 100 Days in Office, Reports Say

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has slipped on summer election campaign promises to review or repeal all laws of the European Union from United Kingdom’s legislation within 100 days of his appointment after discovery of additional pieces of regulations, British media reported on Tuesday.

Sunak has started backing away from his ambitious proposals to "scrub" UK’s statute book of unwanted EU laws, after ministers discovered that they would have to review or repeal 3,800 EU laws, instead of 2,400, reports said.

New UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Grant Shapps intends to slow down the process of revising EU laws due to government employees’ shortage.

"We will slow things down to a sane pace," one of Shapps’ allies told press, without specifying a time frame.

Senior officials noted that a complete review of EU laws and a decision on whether to keep them in British law is a major challenge that will require external legal advice and discussions with business groups, according to press.

In addition, business groups have warned that this initiative could add extra costs to companies in difficult economic situations, the report said.

The UK formally ceased to be a member state of the EU in January 2020. As part of the Brexit agreement, the UK left the single market and the EU customs union.