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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a bill to quickly turn the page on legislation inherited from the European Union, two years after a Brexit whose benefits are slow to materialize.
Boris Johnson on January 27, 2022.
AFP
Today in an extremely delicate position because of a scandal of parties organized in Downing Street under confinement, the 57-year-old Conservative leader wants to convince of the virtues of Brexit, the realization of which after years of post-referendum political paralysis was the key to his electoral triumph in December 2019.
His new Brexit Freedoms Bill aims to facilitate the process already underway to modify or abandon and replace laws inherited from the European Union. According to the government, these reforms will save British companies a billion pounds (1.25 billion francs) in “red tape” and “regulatory burden”.
But many of these companies complain about the obstacles created by Brexit. According to a survey of the British manufacturing sector published recently, two-thirds of companies surveyed believe that Brexit has hampered their business to varying degrees. Half of them fear that they will face new difficulties this year, with the full entry into force of customs controls.
“New Chapter”
Hailing Brexit as “a historic moment and the start of an exciting new chapter for our country”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement that his bill will “further unlock the benefits of Brexit and ensure that companies can spend more of their money to invest, innovate and create jobs”.
Far from sharing this enthusiasm, the Scottish (independence) government is urging London to solve the problems facing the food sector: lack of labor and red tape.
“For two years, Brexit has failed to bring any benefit to the people of rural Scotland,” local government minister Mairi Gougeon said in a statement.
In the face of labor shortages, the Scottish government is applying for two-year visas and says the 30,000 visas for seasonal workers announced by the UK government in late December are far from the 55,700 required by unions of the sector in Great Britain.
(AFP)