Brexit: Ministers clash with MPs over plan to scrap EU laws

Ministers have clashed with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit.

The government’s Retained EU Law Bill will see thousands of laws expire automatically after December, unless they are specifically kept or replaced.

Some MPs have raised concerns the deadline will rob Parliament of a meaningful say over what is changed.

But a business minister said it would set a “clear timeline” to update laws.

Speaking in the Commons, Nus Ghani told MPs it would ensure laws inherited from the EU do not become an “ageing relic dragging down the UK”.

Amendments suggested by Labour to extend the deadline to 2026, and exempt swathes of environmental and employment legislation, were defeated after the government ordered Tory MPs to vote them down.

A cross-party attempt to give MPs a bigger say over which laws are ditched was also defeated, although a handful of rebel Conservatives backed it.

The bill was given final approval by MPs on Wednesday, but is expected to run into significant opposition when it heads to the House of Lords for further scrutiny in the coming weeks.

Ms Ghani said that, so far, the government had identified 3,200 EU laws that were copied over to UK law to minimise disruption to businesses when the UK officially left the EU in 2020.

That figure was expected to rise to 4,000 as an official audit carried out by civil servants continued, she added.

The bill would allow ministers to amend or replace EU laws using secondary legislation, a fast-track process for making new laws, prompting concerns about a lack of scrutiny.

Officials have predicted that around 1,000 new UK laws will be required to remove or replace EU-era legislation by the December deadline.

Bob Neill, one of several Tory MPs backing the unsuccessful amendment to give MPs more control over ditching EU laws, said the bill as it stood would lessen Parliament’s role in reviewing legislation.

Another Tory supporting the change, former Brexit secretary and leading Leave campaigner David Davis, said he wanted to avoid giving ministers the power to change laws by “diktat”.

He added that MPs were being asked to “sign a blank cheque”, and some EU-era legislation was too important to change or remove via a fast-track process.

Under their amendment, the government would have had until the end of September to draw up a list of laws it wanted to scrap, with MPs then able to add or remove legislation from the list after a vote.

Speaking in the Commons, shadow employment rights minister Justin Madders said pushing back the deadline was important to ensure “vital regulation” did not cease to be law “by accident”.

He added that the December time limit had been “plucked out of thin air”, branding it a “deadline in search of a headline”.

Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney also criticised the deadline, accusing ministers of “running roughshod” over Parliament by changing laws at “breakneck speed”.

The criticism was rejected by Ms Ghani, who said the government did not plan to weaken protections, and the bill was a chance to ensure the UK economy was competitive.

Campaign groups have raised the alarm over the risk posed to environmental regulation, an area where the footprint of EU-era legislation is particularly large.

EU-derived legislation in this area covers huge issues such as water quality, air pollution standards and protections for wildlife, as well areas as diverse as mollusc farming, border checks on imported salamanders, and rules for importing hay.

EU laws covering financial services are exempted from the deadline as they have been carved out into another bill making its way through the Commons. The same is expected for EU legislation affecting VAT and customs.

Some of the EU laws affect areas areas governed by ministers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – but the UK government is yet to publish a breakdown.

The SNP-led Scottish government and Labour-run Welsh government have both expressed concerns about the bill, and recommended that their respective parliaments withhold their approval.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who promised during his unsuccessful summer leadership campaign to review or scrap EU laws within 100 days of taking office, has faced pressure from some Brexiteers not to change the end-of-year deadline.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who introduced the bill as business secretary under Liz Truss, said it was one of the “really important completions of Brexit” – and MPs opposing it had “opposed Brexit all along”.

He added that he hoped the House of Lords would note the bill’s “strong democratic mandate” from MPs when they came to consider it.