As expected, some serious blue-on-blue melodrama in the European Scrutiny Committee hearing this morning, as Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch finally faces off against the big Brexiteers after U-turning on the Retained EU Law bill. The group’s deputy chair David Jones has just accused Badenoch of lacking any “courtesy” or “respect” for House of Commons by changing the Bill  after it had already secured parliamentary approval. A “fait accompli”…

Inevitably Badenoch bit back, accusing Jones of leaking to the Telegraph:

“Something you’re not saying is that we had private meetings where we discussed this extensively… It’s public knowledge that we had private meetings, because when I thought we were having private meetings, I was reading the content in the Daily Telegraph…”

With friends like these…

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch is set for a grilling before the European Scrutiny Committee next week, with Sir Bill Cash leading the charge in scrutinising the government’s U-turn on the Retained EU Law earlier this month. This is her sixth invite to the Committee…

The panel will meet on Tuesday morning. Cash has already slammed Badenoch’s previous “failure to appear” as “unacceptable” and a “deeply concerning approach to scrutiny“. The decision to scrap the Bill’s sunset clause on thousands of EU laws also set the cat amongst the pigeons, so it won’t be an easy ride for Badenoch. Mark your calendars…