UK Business Minister Rees-Mogg Says Deregulation Plans On Track

Britain’s business minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said on Wednesday the government had not shelved plans to deregulate parts of the economy, after a report that disagreements at the top of government had delayed its programme.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has vowed to reignite economic growth by reforming planning rules, workers’ rights and immigration, while cutting tens of billions of pounds of taxes.

The unfunded tax cuts have caused turmoil in financial markets and the Times newspaper said the government had now been forced to delay any announcements on reform because Rees-Mogg and Truss could not agree the details.

Rees-Mogg said the plans remained on track.

“We’ve got the big plans for deregulation that are continuing,” Rees-Mogg told Times Radio.

“It’s the cumulative effect of many detailed changes rather than one big bang.”

The government is under pressure to show how it will kick-start growth, rebuild shattered investor confidence and convince Britain’s spending watchdog that it can start to think about balancing the books.

With borrowing costs surging and mortgage and pension markets showing strain, Truss’s finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng brought forward the publication date for his fiscal plans and economic forecasts to Oct. 31. That means the government now has even less time to outline its reform policies.

Kwarteng had previously planned to set out his fuller budget on Nov. 23 – two months after his “mini-budget” triggered a rout in British bonds.

(Reporting by William James and Farouq Suleiman; Editing by Kate Holton)