‘Post-Brexit trade plan for UK is an attack on devolution’
The UK and Welsh governments are at loggerheads over plans to create a ‘UK Single Market’. Chief reporter Martin Shipton unravels their differences and calls for more respect from Westminster...
NEVER mind 1984 – George Orwell would have had a fine time in the UK of 2020. While Counsel General Jeremy Miles has accused the UK Government of seeking to engage in a massive post-Brexit constitutional powers grab, ministers at Westminster claim the reverse is true and that the Welsh Government and other devolved administrations will have their powers enhanced.
Both positions cannot be credible. At the centre of the row is the UK Government’s recently published White Paper on the rules that will govern the “UK Single Market” after we leave the European Single Market and Customs Union at the end of this year.
After immediately expressing doubts about the contents of the White Paper, Mr Miles has now ratcheted up his concern to the point where he argues that its implications imperil the very future of the UK.
Unlike the SNP government in Scotland, Mr Miles makes such a point not as a fervent nationalist, but as someone who wants the Union to survive, if not necessarily in the same form as now.
What are his concerns about the White Paper and how have they been answered?
In a letter to UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma, Mr Miles wrote: “We have already made clear that we are not opposed to an internal market for the UK, neither are we opposed to legislation being brought forward to support the functioning of a UK Internal Market.
“Wales’ interests, and those of the UK as a whole, are best served by ensuring smooth trading arrangements for businesses across all four nations.
“However, your proposals do not deliver this and in any case, this should be a collaborative piece of work in which all the governments within the UK have the opportunity to participate fully and on an equal basis.
“Legislation of the kind proposed in your White Paper is simply not necessary, and we do not recognise the need for this type of solution as the UK Internal Market is already highly integrated . ...
“Our reading of the proposals is that the proposed legislation would prevent the Senedd or Welsh Ministers from imposing mandatory requirements relating to lawful sale of goods and services in Wales – even where these were justified by public health objectives, environmental concerns or any other public policy reason. This would represent a direct attack on the current model of devolution.
“The power – even if untouched – to regulate for goods and services produced in Wales would moreover be severely undermined, if not made completely impractical as in almost any sector, only a minority of goods and services consumed in Wales are produced here.
“The White Paper would thus remove or emasculate the current rights of the devolved institutions to implement changes to the regulatory environment in devolved policy areas governed to date by EU law, such as labelling, or environmental standards.”
Drilling down further into the implications of the White Paper, Mr Miles highlighted a number of specific powers currently residing with the Welsh Government that he fears could be grabbed by Westminster.
One relates to the difference in qualifications necessary to become a teacher.
The critique states: “In England, the entry requirements to the teaching profession are lower and the English version of QTS [Qualified Teacher Status] can be awarded without undertaking an academic qualification. The policy direction in England continues to move towards an unregulated professional space or at least with minimal statutory requirements or academic qualifications in order to teach in schools.
“This is an example of an existing regulatory difference – while we would need to seek confirmation that this position can be maintained and will be outside the scope of the legislation, the worst-case scenario of the proposed system of mutual recognition could be the significant reduction of the standards of the teaching workforce in Wales.”
Touching on the issue that concerns many – the concern that animal welfare and environmental standards could be lowered to enable a free trade deal to be secured with the US that would oblige the UK to accept chlorinated chicken and more pollution – the critique states: “While the UK Government has stressed in discussions and publicly that their intention is to continue to apply high standards, for example in environmental and animal welfare areas, there is no suggestion within the White Paper that the legislation would set these standards in law, nor set a mechanism for agreeing them, and create a baseline for minimum, maximum or unitary standards, as exists within the EU mutual recognition model... It is therefore deeply concerning that this is not set within the UK Government’s proposals.”
Asked to respond to the Welsh Government’s concerns, a spokeswoman for the UK Government said: “Our proposals ensure businesses can continue to prosper after the transition period ends by guaranteeing their ability to trade freely with each nation of the UK as they have done for centuries.
“Under our plans the devolved administrations will have power over more issues than they have ever had before, and will continue to have the power to regulate within their nations.
“The UK is a world leader in agricultural, environmental and food standards and that will not change.
“At the end of the transition period, all of these existing standards will be retained in our domestic law and we will not sign any trade deal that compromises our high standards.”
Welsh Conservative MP Craig Williams, who represents the farming constituency of Montgomeryshire, says he is certain that chlorinated chicken and similar products will not form part of any future trade deal.
“That would require primary legislation and there is no possibility that Conservative backbenchers would vote for it.
“I’m optimistic that there will be a series of mini-deals with the US specific to certain sectors, but that an all-embracing free trade deal will take longer.”
In the spirit of co-operation, the UK Government needs to bring the devolved administrations on board with the UK Single Market by treating them as equals.
There hasn’t been enough of that