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 will 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.
Although government officials say Britain will seek “carve outs” from some elements of EU rules and that MPs will have some kind of “oversight mechanism”, the bill will still be highly contentious from a democratic perspective.
In her Mais economics lecture last Tuesday, Reeves set out the scale of the exercise when she said Britain would keep its regulatory autonomy “for sectors with unique characteristics or strategic importance for the UK, but that should be the exception, not the norm”.
Some Labour officials are hoping that the bill will provoke a Brexit row with the Conservatives and Reform UK, reminding voters that their opponents supported Leave in the EU referendum, whose tenth anniversary is on June 23.
The King’s Speech has been pencilled in for the week after crucial elections on May 7 in Scotland, Wales and for English councils, giving Starmer a chance to reset his government after what are expected to be a terrible set of results for Labour and a new round of leadership speculation.
So far, there is little sign that either Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, or Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, want a new fight over Brexit, which is now widely unpopular with voters, including among many Leave supporters.
Farage’s party issued a one-sentence statement: “After the next election, we will reverse Reeves’ move to drag us back into the single market.”
Andrew Griffith, Conservative shadow business secretary, is due to tell the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange conference in London on Monday that “Britain fought hard over many years to win regulatory independence from Europe and with good reason. Conservatives would not give up our freedom to make our own rules.”
Under a “common understanding” between the EU and UK agreed last year, Britain can seek carve-outs from relevant EU legislation — for example, it wants to maintain its ban on live animal exports and a liberal UK regime for “novel foods” — but this is subject to negotiation with Brussels.
Jill Rutter at the Institute for Government noted that the EU had agreed to consult Britain when developing policy in areas such as food or energy trade where the two sides had agreed to deepen co-operation.
“The question is what does the ‘decision shaping’ which we’ve been offered look like?” she said.
Although government officials say MPs will have some kind of oversight mechanism over individual regulations, most of them will be transferred via secondary legislation known as a statutory instrument, giving MPs little say.
Joël Reland, from the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, said: “Clearly, Farage and Badenoch don’t want to talk about Brexit and draw attention to something that is seen to be bad for the economy.
“But if they believe there is something really egregious about the EU setting laws without parliament having a say, they might pick it up from a ‘democratic principles’ point of view.”
Lord David Frost, former Conservative Brexit minister, said: “The new bill will sideline democratic UK lawmakers by making a whole range of EU laws applicable in Britain without us getting any say in them.
“That’s not alignment, it’s subordination.”
The Cabinet Office said: “We have already agreed that the UK will help shape new rules and any disputes will be resolved by an independent arbitration panel — not an EU court.
“We will provide details of the legislation in due course and parliament will play its full constitutional role in scrutinising, debating and shaping it.”