An ‘insane’ EU law forcing ride-on mowers to be covered by owners’ car insurance will be blocked by Parliament tomorrow.

Motorists would have had around £50 added to their annual insurance premiums as a result of the law, which would have also affected golf buggies and mobility scooters.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hailed Parliament’s move as a Brexit dividend.

Motorists would have faced £50 extra on car insurance premiums to cover mowers (file image)

British drivers will be protected from the rules as legislation blocking the expansion of the number of vehicles that have to be insured is due to pass its final hurdle in Parliament tomorrow.

Mr Shapps told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Leaving the EU was always about doing what’s best for Britain, freeing ourselves from nonsensical laws and taking back control. Tomorrow, we aim to do just that.

He said the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Bill would ‘mark the end of the road’ for the EU’s ‘Vnuk’ motor insurance law, which is named after Damijan Vnuk, a Slovenian farmworker knocked off his ladder by a trailer attached to a reversing tractor.

Insurers refused to pay out because the accident occurred on private land, but in 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that the claim should have been covered.

The EU then widened the range of vehicles that require insurance to include many used on private land.

Boris Johnson called it ‘insane’ and a ‘perfect example of the over-regulation that has sapped the competitiveness of the EU’. The change, which would have been brought in had the UK stayed in the EU, is likely to have cost British insurers nearly £2 billion, which they would probably have added to premiums.

Mr Shapps said axeing the Vnuk law will save the UK’s motorsports industry from ‘potential collapse’ as it faced having to pay extra premiums of £458 million a year.

The Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Bill is scheduled for its third reading in the Lords tomorrow and is expected to receive Royal Assent soon after.

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UK to axe ‘insane’ EU law that would have seen £50 added to insurance premiums in Brexit dividend

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