The government’s ‘benefits of Brexit’ should alarm us all – no wonder businesses are annoyed

The government’s “Benefits of Brexit" report is a remarkable tome that has clearly been published in a hurry.

It appears that no one had a chance to edit the document, which could have conveyed all of its main points at a fraction of the length.

There are obvious points to snipe at, including purported benefits which could have been delivered without leaving the EU: the restoration of crown symbols on pint glasses or the blue cover on our passports, for example.

Despite stretching to 108 pages, the document is light on practical detail. More than five years on from the referendum, businesses are understandably frustrated to be fobbed off with a set of vague aspirations.

Export health certificates is causing a massive headache for food businesses now, for example. For the government to say it wants to digitise them but offer no timeframe or indication of how this will be delivered is pointless. No wonder Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, has said it is “very hard to take the document seriously” and that it contains “just backward-looking self-justification”.

However, “Benefits of Brexit” does give an important indication of how Boris Johnson’s government hopes to reshape the country after Brexit. As might be expected, getting rid of a host of EU rules seen as burdensome is central to the plan.

What is more revealing is how those rules are to be reshaped. The government says rather than rigid directives it will provide “flexible frameworks” and rules “created in collaboration” with the sectors they apply to.

It also wants to cut down on compliance costs and ensure enforcement is “modernised and joined up”.

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see what this means: businesses will have a say in writing their own rules.

The government also wants regulators to promote the industries they are supposed to be keeping in check.

If ministers want to understand how disastrous and counterproductive this approach can be, they should watch the Grenfell Tower Inquiry which is looking into that horrific and deadly tragedy – which is now one of the most financially costly scandals in modern history. Criminal proceedings may follow the conclusion of the public inquiry.

In the construction industry, rules were replaced with vague guidance, regulations were written in collaboration with industry and overseen by privatised regulators

The fact that the government seems to think recreating this model throughout the rest of the economy is the key “freedom” we have gained since Brexit should alarm us all.