From THE DAILY SCEPTIC

by Toby Young

Robert Jenrick has promised to tear up the Climate Change Act if he becomes Tory leader and eventually Prime Minister. The Telegraph has more.

He has said he will scrap major pieces of Blair and Brown era legislation including the Climate Change Act, Equality Act and Human Rights Act under a “Great Reform Act” if he makes it to No. 10.

His plans include scrapping carbon budgets and unburdening businesses of equality laws which have been criticised for driving positive discrimination and political correctness in the workplace.

He described carbon budgets as “Soviet-style five-year plans” and claimed they impede the building of critical national infrastructure projects.

He would also take aim at the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act and section 6 of the Human Rights Act, which gives the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) force in British law.

“The next Conservative government must do better to deliver a genuinely conservative country. We must repeal and amend the Climate Change Act, Equality Act and Human Rights Act and restore decision-making to ministers accountable to parliament,” Mr Jenrick told the Telegraph.

He accused the Prime Minister of “planning a second disastrous Blairite revolution” and suggested he could repeal laws brought forward by the current Labour Government, including a mooted Race Equality Act that was included in Labour’s manifesto.

He has also pledged to scrap new quangos promised in Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto, including Great British Energy, the Nationwide Climate Export Hubs and an Office for Value for Money.

Mr. Jenrick argued the Public Sector Equality Duty has “led to recruitment based on identity, not merit” and that “the chief beneficiary has been EDI consultants and those that peddle divisive and false narratives about Britain’s past”.

On carbon budgets, the Tory leadership candidate said: “It is ludicrous to set out soviet-style five-year plans at a sectoral level which specify where you plan to reduce carbon emissions. The state does not have sufficient understanding of the economy to do that well. It’s impeding us from building the critical national infrastructure we need.”

Mr. Jenrick’s plan is inspired by the Great Reform Act of 1832 which expanded democracy and swept away corruption in the British political system.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: In another crowd-pleasing intervention, Jenrick has called for whole-life sentences for people convicted of grooming underage girls for sex. The Telegraph has more.