- By Paul Seddon
- Politics reporter
Image source, Getty Images
The government has ditched its plan for thousands of EU-era laws to expire automatically at the end of the year.
The plan – dubbed a post-Brexit bonfire – would see laws that were copied over to the UK after Brexit vanish, unless specifically kept or replaced.
Critics of the bill had voiced concern that it could lead to important legislation falling away by accident.
The climbdown is likely to trigger anger from Brexit-backing Conservative MPs.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the cut-off point would be replaced with a list of 600 laws the government wants to replace by the end of the year.
In a statement, she said the change would be made through an amendment when the Retained EU Law Bill returns to Parliament next week.
Tory Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, who introduced the bill when he was in government, called the move an “admission of administrative failure”.
It showed an “inability of Whitehall to do the necessary work and an incapability of ministers to push this through their own departments,” he added.
The UK incorporated an estimated 4,000 EU laws into UK law to minimise disruption to businesses when the UK officially left the EU in 2020.
Since September 2021, it has been reviewing this body of legislation to identify opportunities to give British firms an edge over European competitors.
The Retained EU Law Bill, which began its journey through Parliament during Liz Truss’s premiership, would have introduced a 31 December cut-off date for the laws to expire, unless the government replaced or decided to retain them.
‘Humiliating u-turn’
But opposition parties, trade unions and campaign groups cast doubt on whether the deadline was realistic, given the huge workload in reviewing the legislation.
In a statement on Wednesday, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch acknowledged the deadline had created “legal uncertainty” for businesses.
She added that the “growing volume” of EU laws identified during an ongoing audit of laws carried out by civil servants meant the process had started to prioritise reducing legal risk over “meaningful reform”.
Labour called the move a “humiliating u-turn,” accusing ministers of trying to “rescue this sinking ship of a bill”.
“After wasting months of parliamentary time, the Tories have conceded that this universally unpopular bill will damage the economy,” said Jenny Chapman, Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister.
