Oliver Letwin, a former Cabinet Office minister and David Cameron’s policy guru, has launched a cross-party initiative to build consensus for regulatory changes that could boost the economy when Britain leaves the EU.
The Red Tape Initiative, launched today, is independent of any political party and will run until 2020.
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Launching the Initiative, Letwin said: “We need to grasp the opportunities that Brexit will give us to cut red tape in sensible ways. And we mustn’t lose any time doing that.
“So the point of the Red Tape Initiative is to identify ‘early wins’ that can command cross-party support in both Houses of Parliament immediately after we leave the EU.”
The RTI’s advisory board includes former cabinet secretary Lord Butler, David Laws – Letwin’s Lib Dem counterpart in the Cabinet Office during the coalition government, former Labour minister Liam Byrne, Telegraph journalist Charles Moore, former Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker, and senior businessman and former Conservative MP Archie Norman, who is also the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s lead non-executive director.
The group will work with experts from a range of industries to identify changes that could be made to specific areas of EU laws to boost jobs and businesses. It will be supported by business groups CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, Institute of Directors and the Small Business Federation as well as the Trades Union Congress.
Greg Clark, the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary, has written to the RTI, welcoming its creation and offering the cooperation of his officials.
Other MPs who are supporting the initiative include former Tory ministers Michael Gove and Theresa Villiers, Labour’s Frank Field and Stephen Timms and Lib Dem Jo Swinson.