Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested the government is considering ditching plans to fit safety devices limiting speed in all UK cars because of a desire not to follow EU rules.
Speed limiters were reportedly set to be made mandatory for new British cars under government plans to follow a Brussels safety standards ruling.
However, hinting at a row in cabinet, Mr Rees-Mogg said he was against following EU regulations – telling MPs on Wednesday: “I don’t care what the EU does anymore.”
The minister for Brexit opportunities suggested he was firmly opposed to the plan. “I better be careful … I don’t want to upset collective responsibility too much,” he told the European scrutiny committee.
Mr Rees-Mogg added: “We may be putting speed limiters on people’s cars because the EU’s doing it. Because the EU’s doing it is no argument for doing anything anymore. We want to get away from this mentality.”
The new safety technology – known as “intelligent speed assistance” – is dependent upon GPS tracking and cameras on the vehicle and has been described as a “big leap forward” by EU officials.
Senior Tory backbencher Craig Mackinlay has urged Boris Johnson’s government against the use of speed limiters being introduced in Europe – dubbing it “Big Brother in your cockpit”.
However, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has warned that an attempt to diverge from the EU rules could be bad for British manufacturers.
The Department for Transport said last week that no decisions had been made taken on which safety regulations the UK would follow.
Meanwhile, Mr Rees-Mogg told MPs the “best is yet to come” when it comes to ditching EU law and attempting to maximise the benefits of Brexit.
Grilled on the use of new “freedoms” since Brexit, he claimed that Boris Johnson’s response to the Ukraine crisis was a “monument to freedom” that would not have been possible inside the EU.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: “If you want a monument to our freedom, at the moment, it is the extraordinary leadership the prime minister has been able to give over Ukraine – which I think he simply would not have been able to do had we had to go along with … a combined EU mechanism.”
The cabinet minister revealed that he now had 31 members of staff from his Brexit opportunities unit sitting in the Treasury building. “But it sits metaphysically in the Cabinet Office,” he added.
The senior figure said he and his team were responsible for “innovative thinking” in scrutinising all new legislation to make sure nothing could be held back or influenced by EU law.
He promised that his Brexit freedoms bill would offer a “mechanism for updating, changing and removing retained EU law in a way that will be much smoother and faster”.
Mr Rees-Mogg also said his own plans for a procurement bill would help “simplify and ease” the burden of paperwork on companies applying for public contracts.
