Rishi Sunak has been accused by a senior Eurosceptic Tory of throwing only “insignificant” or outdated European-era laws at a long-promised “bonfire of Brussels bureaucracy”.
Sir Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European Control Committee, derided the 600-piece list of Secondary EU law identified by ministers for repeal by the end of 2023.
He said the list included quota rules for imports of wheat bran into the French territory of Reunion and the fixing of fishing opportunities for anchovies in the Bay of Biscay for the 2012 fishing season.
Cash also highlighted the fisheries measures in São Tomé and Príncipe among more than 150 EU fisheries rules that should be scrapped.
Another measure involved “limitations on working hours for drivers during the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak,” Cash noted.
Conservative eurosceptics are furious with Sunak for watering down the EU law retained (REUL) which is being considered this week in the House of Lords.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who drafted the original bill, said accused Sunak to behave like the Borgia family, which became synonymous with betrayal in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Sunak scrapped the “sunset clause,” under which all EU-era bills would have to be reconsidered or scrapped by the end of 2023, in favor of a timetable of 600 pieces of legislation to be phased out.
But in a letter to Sunak, Cash said his committee’s initial assessment of the timetable found that “almost without exception” the measures it contained were “insignificant, obsolete and not legally and/or politically significant. “.
“The revocation of this REUL cannot be construed as easing the regulatory burden on business or stimulating economic growth,” Cash wrote. “This is a worrying misinterpretation and raises the question of what the real purpose of the calendar is.”
Kemi Badenoch, Business Secretary, announced the retired last weekarguing that it was unrealistic and undesirable to rush to revise or scrap all EU laws by the end of the year.
Business groups, unions and charities had warned that the unbridled rush to purge EU laws could put valuable protections for consumers, workers and the environment at risk.
As well as scrapping specific laws, the groups warned, the bill still gives ministers so-called Henry VIII powers, which will allow EU-derived laws to be changed without proper scrutiny in the future.
Greener UK, a coalition of 10 of the UK’s biggest conservation groups including the RSPB and the National Trust, said the list of 600 laws to be scrapped had also raised specific concerns in areas of conservation management. water and air pollution control.
They cited laws governing how water resources are analyzed in environmental impact assessments, warning that removing existing laws before replacements are put on the statute book could leave “gaps fundamentals” in water supply management laws.
The group added that the government was also proposing to scrap some of the 2018 national emissions cap regulations which require the government to explain how it will meet targets to cut pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and ammonia. .
Ruth Chambers of the Greener UK coalition said that unless monitoring provisions were strengthened in the bill, the legislation would give future governments the power to weaken environmental rules.
“If this bill is passed as is, future governments will be able to weaken environmental rules with impunity. Major laws affecting rivers or chemical safety would be in jeopardy for years,” she said.
Jobs groups have also warned that the Government’s commitment to remove the ‘supremacy’ of EU law from the UK legal system would create huge uncertainty as it would remove the legal precedents on which UK courts had based their decisions.
“Neither employers nor employees will clearly understand the meaning of large parts of employment law that affect investment and labor cost,” said Paul McFarlane, president of the Employment Lawyers Association.
The TUC, the union umbrella organization, said the bill also sets the stage for the government to roll back long-established protections over working hours and paid holidays. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said the government was “stealthly undermining working time protections”.
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