U.K. unveils first Brexit legislation
Scottish National Party leader calls bill ‘power grab’
LONDON — There’s no divorce without paperwork.
Just more than a year after Britons voted to leave the European Union, the U.K. government on Thursday unveiled the first piece of legislation to make it a reality — a 62-page bill that opposition politicians are already vowing to block.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill aims to convert some 12,000 EU laws and regulations into U.K. statute on the day Britain leaves the bloc. That is scheduled to be in March 2019.
All those rules can then be kept, amended or scrapped by Britain’s Parliament, fulfilling the promise of anti-eu campaigners to “take back control” from Brussels to London.
The government says the bill will ensure continuity — law on the day after Brexit will be the same as on the day before. Brexit Secretary David Davis said the legislation will allow Britain to leave the EU with “maximum certainty, continuity and control.”
But opponents of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government fear the legislation gives officials powers to change laws without sufficient scrutiny by lawmakers. They worry the government could water down environmental standards, employment regulations or other measures brought to Britain through EU law since it joined the bloc in 1973.
Contentiously, the bill gives the government powers to fix “deficiencies” in EU law by what’s known as statutory instruments, which can be used without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legislation. Such powers are often referred to as “Henry VIII powers” after the Tudor king’s bid to legislate by proclamation.
Andrew Blick, a politics lecturer at King’s College London, said such executive powers are “a very sensitive subject” and likely to face opposition.
The powers are temporary, expiring two years after Brexit day. Even so, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon branded the bill a “naked power grab.”
Charles Clark, partner consultant at law firm Linklaters, said the sheer number of legal changes needed — 800 to 1,000 by the government’s estimate — meant Brexit could be “a mind-blowingly complicated logistical exercise.”
“My worry is we will be faced with death by statutory instrument,” he said. “It’s going to be very expensive in terms of parliamentary and public time, and business time.”
“The issue Theresa May is going to face is that if she makes concessions she could face rebellion from the more fervent euroskeptics in her party — and if she doesn’t, there’s a risk of rebellion from another direction,” said Blick. “And if she’s really unlucky she’ll get both.”