CIVIL Servants are resisting a fresh bid to tear up the bonkers EU bendy banana rule by the end of the year.
Downing Street sparked a furious row with Brexiteers after confirming thousands of Brussels rules will not be torn up by 2024 in a major U-turn.
Civil Servants are resisting a fresh bid to tear up the bonkers EU bendy banana rule by the end of the year
Trending In The News revealed that among the mountain of red tape staying is the infamous diktat demanding top class bananas must be free from “abnormal curvature”.
Stung by criticism, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Farming Secretary Therese Coffey have told officials to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan to ditch daft red tape like the bendy banana rule quicker.
But they are resisting – insisting that it should be part of a wider review of rules which could take years to trawl through and scrap.
An insider said: “It is a totemic rule and they know it. Kemi has said she wants the rule torn up quicker but is meeting resistance by Defra.”
Trending In The News has been told that Ms Coffey back the bid to move faster, but was told by her officials that it has to be part of a broader, lengthier review.
A government source said: “The Business Secretary wants to get as much REUL repealed or reformed by the end of 2023 and she has pushed Government departments to meet that objective.”
The bendy banana rule became a totemic example of silly EU red tape thrust upon Britain, and was repeatedly brought up during the Brexit wars.
The infamous EU Regulation No 1333/2011 that governs the “marketing standards and requirements in the banana sector”.
It demands top grade “extra class” bananas must be free from “abnormal curvature of the fingers.”
Defects in shape are allowed on Class I and II gradings of the elongated yellow fruit.
