Financial Times
Some Labour officials hope bill will provoke Brexit dispute with Tories and Reform UK
Sir Keir Starmer is to bring forward legislation in May’s King’s Speech allowing ministers to import a wave of EU laws to Britain as the prime minister seeks to reconnect with Europe’s single market. Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week set out plans to align with EU rules in certain sectors in the “national interest” and the new bill will create a framework for a swift transfer to the statute book in the UK of laws made in Brussels, reversing a central tenet of Brexit.
The bill has not yet been given a formal title, but officials briefed on the plan confirmed it would be in the King’s Speech at the start of a new parliamentary session in May. In the first instance the bill would allow Britain to adopt EU regulations to clear the way for an EU-UK food and agriculture trade deal, which both sides hope to conclude at a summit around the time of the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote.
The UK has identified 76 EU directives and regulations as being “in scope”, covering areas from food hygiene and organic pet food to marmalade. But it would also pave the way for ministers to transfer other EU laws on to the UK statute book in future, with Reeves hoping that Britain can reconnect with the single market on a sector-by-sector basis.
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