John Redwood proposes 'disapplying' EU Laws

The following is from this morning's Sunday Telegraph, linked here. At first glance it has all the appearances of an electoral gimmick, for it would put the UK in breach of several separate treaty obligations and subject the country to huge fines.

The track record of the present government in meekly coughing up millions of euros fine (does anyone know the final amount and why is it being obscured?) on DEFRA for late payments of the EU farming subsidies , to meet which they neglected other important responsibilities of DEFRA, such as flood defences and possibly it now appears basic maintenance at Pirbright.

I will be putting this point about the fines to Mr Redwood on his blog and will report back here when this idea has been further explained or developed. I quote the portion of that article here:

In a section that seems certain to inflame internal Tory rows on Europe, Mr Redwood argues that Britain's opt-out from the European Social Chapter, which was removed by Labour within days of taking of office in 1997, should be restored. Britain should go further in negotiating more opt-outs, the policy group says, including large numbers of employment and social policy rules.

As a "last resort", the document says, Britain should legislate at home to "disapply EU regulation unilaterally where we think its is against our national interest". Such a course of action would set up the biggest conflict between Britain and Brussels since the UK joined the Common Market in 1973.