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Labour has launched an attempt to stop swaths of EU laws automatically disappearing from the UK statute book “by accident” at the end of the year, in a new challenge to Rishi Sunak’s flagship Brexit legislation.
The main opposition party said its “sovereignty amendment” would give parliament the final say on whether to repeal EU laws, which include consumer and environmental protections and workplace rights.
Labour’s amendment to the government’s retained EU law bill is likely to win cross-party support in the House of Lords, forcing Sunak, the prime minister, to mobilise his MPs to defend legislation which has been criticised by business groups and some Tory MPs.
Under the bill, originally drawn up by the then-business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, EU laws on the UK statute book will automatically expire at the end of 2023 unless they are specifically kept or amended by ministers.
Ministers have identified more than 3,700 pieces of EU law, but admit more legislation could yet be found.
Business groups have warned the retained EU law bill is causing major regulatory uncertainty.
Lady Jenny Chapman, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said Labour’s amendment would require ministers to provide a full list of the EU legislation they want to repeal and to put it to parliament for a vote.
Chapman told the Financial Times: “The amendment would stop regulation falling out of law without anyone noticing.
“Ministers would have to put this to parliament. We are calling it a sovereignty amendment because it lets parliament do its job.”
Chapman believes the Lords, which contains many peers who opposed Brexit, will support Labour’s amendment at the bill’s report stage, which is expected before Easter.
If that happens, Sunak would be expected to whip his MPs in the House of Commons to overturn the amendment. “It’s full steam ahead,” said one ally of the prime minister.
However some senior Tory MPs, including former Brexit secretary David Davis and former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland, have expressed concerns about the bill.
Although Sunak easily quashed a rebellion on a similar amendment in the Commons last month, the issue could become a parliamentary headache for the prime minister if a head of steam builds up in the Lords.
“There could be quite a ding-dong at ping-pong,” said Buckland, referring to the process where a bill shuttles between the Lords and Commons at its final stages.
Ultimately Labour officials said the Lords will accept that MPs have the final say, but the parliamentary struggle would put in the spotlight a bill that has drawn widespread opposition beyond Westminster.
“We would prefer the government would listen to reason,” Chapman said. “It’s a more responsible way to govern.”
Tory MPs believe Sunak wants to press ahead with the “bonfire of EU red tape” because it helps to satisfy Eurosceptic Conservatives who feel the government has not yet exploited the “opportunities” of Brexit.
Sunak is also negotiating with Brussels over changes to Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, and knows he cannot afford to antagonise his MPs at such a sensitive moment.
Lord Martin Callanan, speaking for the government in the Lords this week, insisted the bill was “not a power grab” by ministers. Lord David Frost, former Brexit minister, said inherited EU laws had “little real legitimacy”.
But Lord Michael Heseltine, former Tory deputy prime minister, said of the bill: “They have now actually created a giant question mark over a whole realm of regulations that are the custodian that separates us from the law of the jungle.”
Some Tory MPs believe that delays in passing the legislation could force Sunak to extend the December 31 deadline at which point EU laws could automatically expire.
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