Rishi Sunak again opts for pragmatism over Brexit bombast on sunset clause

Ditching of EU law guillotine shows PM realises it is voters, not Tory ‘Spartans’, who will decide his fate

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Kemi Badenoch has felt the full force of backbench Brexiters’ rage in the House of Commons after ditching the “sunset clause” in the retained EU law bill that would have automatically struck out reams of EU law at the end of the year.

“Secretary of state, what on earth are you playing at?” stormed Mark Francois, while Jacob Rees-Mogg blamed “civil service idleness” for the failure to scrutinise and replace sufficient legislation in time. Telegraph headline-writers blamed the Whitehall “blob”.