Vocal Eurosceptic John Redwood this morning demanded to know why, months after the transition period ended, Mr Johnson hasn’t turbo-charged Brexit Britain. The Conservative MP, who has long called for the UK to free itself from Brussels’ shackles, spoke as the country’s vastly successful vaccine rollout outshines the EU’s bumbling effort.
Experts at Imperial College London estimate this could earn the country an extra £36bn if it comes out of lockdown two months before the EU as predicted.
Combined with the freedom that Brexit has given the government to cut taxes, create jobs and rebuild our neglected industries, Mr Redwood questioned why more hadn’t been done.
He tweeted: “Challenge to Ministers – what have you done to take advantage of our new freedoms out of the EU?
“When do we get the tax cuts, the rebuilding of the UK’s fishing and farming Industries, the intelligent use of UK public sector buying and policy to create more jobs in the UK?”
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A third wrote: “I suspect this will all take a good deal of time, as there (is) a good deal of work to do in order to support this project, and we have to extricate ourselves from a now embedded paradigm.
“But yes, I would agree that there’s no better time than the present to start.”
Mr Redwood’s outburst is the latest in a series of full frontal assaults he has launched on the bloc.
Last week when it threatened to block vaccine exports to countries including the UK he mounted a scathing attack.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen initially told AstraZeneca, which makes the Oxford jab, it must “catch up” with EU deliveries before exporting.
She later backtracked after the spat threatened to spark a trade war with the EU.
But the comments didn’t stop furious reactions from Brexiteers and Reaminers alike.
Hitting back, Mr Redwood tweeted: “The EU summit send out threats as member states argued over export bans and allocation of vaccine.
“It seems the EU does not feel the need to obey its own treaties over free trade and good relations with neighbouring states and companies.”
