‘Who do you think you are talking to?’: Speaker rebukes Kemi Badenoch as Tory MPs line up to criticise EU law U-turn
Tory MPs have launched scathing attacks on the government for U-turning on its decision to remove all EU legislation from UK law by the end of 2023.
Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, confirmed the move on Wednesday, putting a stop to a key pledge of Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign last summer.
She said it had been her decision to remove the so-called sunset clause, as it risked “legal uncertainty”, so a new approach was needed.
But staunch Brexiteers within the Conservative ranks have criticised the change, with former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg accusing Mr Sunak of “behaving like a Borgia”.
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A fiery session in the Commons began on Thursday with a telling off for Ms Badenoch for making the announcement via a written statement, rather than coming to the despatch box.
Answering an urgent question on the policy change, she told MPs: “I am very sorry that the sequencing that we chose was not to your satisfaction.”
Kemi Badenoch faced scorn from all sides of the House – including from the Speaker’s chair
But Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle met her tone with a tirade, saying her comment was “totally not acceptable”.
“Who do you think you are speaking to?” he added. “I am the defender of this House and these benches on both sides, I am not going to be spoken to by a secretary of state who is absolutely not accepting my ruling.
“Members should hear it first, not a WMS (written ministerial statement) or what you decide.
“These members have been elected by their constituents and they have the right to hear it first and it is time this government recognises we are all elected, we are all members of parliament and use the correct manners.”
Ms Badenoch apologised, saying she was “very sorry she did not meet the standards expected”, before beginning a defence of the change in government policy.
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Kemi Badenoch was told off in the House of Commons by the Speaker
She said the move would “provide the legal clarity and certainty” for businesses, while still seeing 600 pieces of EU law revoked by the end of the year.
The minister also said the new approach would allow “the space for longer term and more ambitious reforms”, adding: “We will still fully take back control of our laws and end supremacy and the special status of EU law.”
But a raft of Tory backbenchers stood to criticise her plans.
Barrage of criticism after ‘massive climbdown’
Mark Francois, who chairs the Brexit-backing European Research Group (ERG), asked why the government had “performed a massive climbdown on its own bill despite having such strong support from its own backbenches”, saying to Ms Badenoch: “What on earth are you playing at?”
Sir Desmond Swayne said: “The advantage of a sunset [clause] is it provides a sense of urgency. Now there isn’t one, is there?”
And Michael Fabricant said she had been “tin-eared” by not understanding the upset it would cause.
Ms Badenoch also faced a barrage of criticism from opposition MPs about its handling of the issue.
Labour shadow business minister, Justin Madders, called it “an absolute shambles”.
He added: “It was completely unrealistic, reckless and frankly arrogant to think you could strike 4,000 laws from the statute book in the timescale of the bill.
“It is no use blaming the blob or the anti-growth coalition or the BBC.
“This humiliating U-turn is completely down to government hubris that has found itself crashing up against reality.”
The SNP’s Pete Wishart also criticised the minister’s tone during the debate, saying she was “doing herself no favours at all with her patronising and arrogant manner”.
He added: “Isn’t it just the case that in the haste to create this hard Brexit utopia, the reality has just finally caught up with them?
“Doesn’t it look like the Conservative Party, this fragile Brexit coalition, is now starting to fragment into its constituent parts?”
But a few MPs from her own side offered support, with Tory Sir Bob Neil saying the change in approach was “sensible and pragmatic”, and done in “a very Conservative and pro-business fashion”.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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