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Opposition parties will next week try to delay government plans to scrap nearly 4,000 EU laws and key workers’ rights from the UK’s statute books after Brexit.
Legal experts described the government’s proposals as “reckless” and poorly designed, warning that they would give ministers too much power to decide which laws stay or fall.
Labor and the Scottish National Party will introduce a series of amendments to the EU Conservation Legislation (Repeal and Reform) Bill aimed at protecting workers’ rights, health and safety laws and annual leave and maternity rights.
The UK has kept thousands of EU laws after officially leaving the bloc on January 31, 2022. The bill, called the Brexit Freedoms Bill, will allow the government to review this set of EU laws by the end of 2023 if be adopted in current form.
But Brendan O’Hara, the SNP member for Argyll and Bute, said scrapping the laws would “flagrantly trespass” on devolution arrangements in Scotland and “start a race to the bottom” on food and environmental standards.
The bill would give ministers the power to repeal nearly 4,000 EU laws by the end of 2023.
(Getty Images)
He told The Guardian that his party has tabled 50 amendments so far and plans to table more as the bill moves through parliament. “As we promised we would, SNP MPs have opposed this bill at every turn,” he said.
Mr O’Hara’s colleague, SNP MSP Alasdair Allan, described the bill as an “outrageous power grab”.
One of the SNP’s key amendments, believed to be backed by several Conservative MPs, would extend the delisting date from the end of 2023 to 2026, according to The Guardian. The amendments will be tabled on Tuesday when the bill goes to committee.
Legal experts and activists have expressed concern about the bill.
Eleanor Duchs, a partner at City law firm Bates Wells and a former government lawyer who helped develop the concept of EU reserved law, said last month that the bill “gives ministers the power to repeal and replace a huge part of what is now domestic legislation at speed and without proper control’.
“This is unprecedented, reckless and undemocratic,” she said.
Patrick Begg, director of outdoors and natural resources at the National Trust, said the bill, which includes 570 environmental provisions, would cause serious environmental damage.
Labor also plans to introduce a series of amendments to workers’ rights, health and safety law, annual leave and maternity rights, and some environmental laws.
Stella Creasy, the Labor MP for Walthamstow, who sits on the committee overseeing the bill, said there were several options to consider, including a “sunrise clause” which would keep EU laws in place until they are specifically reviewed, amended or updated.
Jonathan Jones, the government’s head of the legal service from 2014 to 2020, said the bill would cause legal chaos and further pain for businesses, many of which are already struggling to trade with European countries after Brexit.
“I think it’s absolutely ideological and symbolic and not about real policy,” he said last month.
The government previously said ministers were committed to taking “full advantage of the benefits of Brexit”.
A spokesman said the bill would allow the UK to “quickly develop new laws and regulations that best meet the country’s needs, cutting red tape to drive growth and strengthen the UK’s position as a world-class place to starting and developing a business’.
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