BOJO state aid rules

Boris Johnson has pledged that the UK will break free of EU state aid rules after Brexit to make it easier to prop up ailing industries, in a move that is aimed at winning over Labour voters but could make it harder to secure a trade deal with Brussels.
The prime minister set out proposals yesterday to make it “faster and easier” for a government to intervene in failing industries after the UK leaves the EU, with officials saying it would allow “extremely rapid responses to economic turbulence”.
Mr Johnson’s assertion that Brexit would allow Britain to adopt looser state aid rules marks an abrupt change for a politician who has spent most of career — in politics and journalism — fulminating against supposed statist tendencies in Brussels.
It also dismayed rightwingers who argue that leaving the EU would allow Britain to move in a more free-market direction. The Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank accused the Tories of paying “lip service” to “free markets and free enterprise”.
The prime minister insisted his proposal would not complicate his hopes of obtaining a trade deal with the EU, but he added he would “fundamentally change” public procurement rules to “back British business”, which would tilt the level playing field against European rivals.
Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the EU, said the idea appeared to mimic Donald Trump’s “Buy America” policy, noting that the Tories had once played a key role in writing into European treaties provisions to curb unfair competition.
The political declaration on a future UK-EU partnership, agreed by Mr Johnson, commits both sides to “common high standards” in state aid, competition, social and employment legislation, environment, climate change and tax.
Mr Johnson insisted his new regime would enable the government to move more quickly when industries required assistance.
“I believe in competition, I believe in a level playing field, but we need to speed things up,” he said at a press conference. “There are ways we would be able to do things differently and better.”
Tory officials referred to attempts by the government to help the troubled UK steel industry in 2015, which they claim were hindered by a “50-day” wait for approval from Brussels. “That caused a lot of unnecessary anxiety,” said one.
The proposals are modelled on principles set out by the World Trade Organization, instead of those underlying the EU’s single market.
However, moving away from the state aid provisions could lead to problems in Northern Ireland. The province has a unique status in Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal and will have to remain aligned to the EU’s level playing field provisions.
Conservative party officials insisted that the proposals would not lead to any further checks between Britain and the island of Ireland and said any system would be developed with the input of the devolved administrations.
The new policy, which builds on what was set out in the Conservative election manifesto, could help the party in its target seats in industrial areas of the Midlands and north of England.
But Victoria Hewson, head of regulatory affairs at the IEA, said: “Extending these rules, by allowing government to use taxpayers’ money to prop up industries that have no future, would be to move swiftly in the wrong direction, crippling the emergence of new and innovative businesses that our economy relies on

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