The tough parliamentary battle awaiting the British government over its Brexit strategy was highlighted on Thursday, as it published the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, better known as the repeal bill, which will replace the legislation that initially took Britain into the union, end the supremacy of EU law in the country, and convert it into U.K. law.
While the government said the Bill was designed to ensure Britain exited the union with “maximum certainty, continuity and control”, Opposition parties have sharply criticised elements of the legislation and warned they would block it.
Among the most controversial elements of the bill is the decision to abandon the EU’s charter of fundamental rights, which sets out, in a single document, all the fundamental civil, social, political rights and protections of EU citizens, and give the government sweeping powers to make changes without thorough parliamentary scrutiny.
Keeping Britain in the charter was one of six areas on which the Labour party has sought “concessions” from the government, including on workers protections and limiting the use of ‘Henry VIII’ powers that allow the government to amend significant legislation with minimal parliamentary scrutiny. “Change the approach or we will vote against the Repeal Bill,” warned the Labour’s Keir Starmer, in an interview with the Guardian .
Vital protections
“These vital protections, enshrined in European law, from workers rights to the environment, matter and we will defend them to the hilt,” said Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who warned Prime Minister Theresa May faced “hell” in Parliament as she attempted to get the legislation through.
The Bill also provoked an angry response from the governments of Scotland and Wales, which warned they would vote against it in its current form. In a joint statement, both Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, and Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales, condemned the Bill as a “naked power grab an attack on the fundamental principles of devolution. “The EU (Withdrawal) Bill does not return powers from the EU to the devolved administrations as promised. It returns them solely to the U.K. government and Parliament and imposes new restrictions on the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.” In a statement accompanying the Bill, the government said it expected a “significant increase in the decision-making power of each devolved administration.”
The government also faced criticism over the push for the so-called Henry VIII powers, included in the Bill. “The ‘Repeal Bill’ grants extraordinarily broad powers to make big changes to our laws, including after we have left the EU at a stroke of a ministerial pen,” warned the campaign group Open Britain.
“It is one of the most significant pieces of legislation that has even passed through Parliament and is a major milestone in the process of our withdrawal from the European Union,” said David Davis, the Brexit Secretary.
The government’s ability to pass this crucial piece of legislation, which is set to be debated in Parliament in the Autumn, as well as several others that will need to be passed before March 2019, when Britain leaves the Union, faces uncertainty following the snap general election that deprived the government of an overall parliamentary majority.
With some Conservative MPs concerned about the direction the government’s Brexit strategy has taken, it can expect the Opposition coming from within its own ranks too.
