Brexit paper ‘will plant flag on world stage’ –PM
Once again, the Welsh and Scottish governments find themselves at loggerheads with Boris Johnson’s administration in Westminster – this time over an impending piece of legislation that has been dubbed the ‘Brexit Freedoms Bill’. Political editorat-large M
THE Prime Minister has said his Government plans on “firmly planting the British flag on the world stage once again” after it set out its vision for capitalising on Brexit’s opportunities.
Boris Johnson, in his foreword to the UK Government’s The Benefits Of Brexit paper, said that the “bolder” the UK is in targeting opportunities afforded by leaving the European Union, the “greater the gains will be for us all”.
The document was published yesterday to mark the second anniversary of Britain’s divorce from Brussels, with it setting out the plan for altering what Brussels-made laws will be kept or scrapped, including ambitions to save £1bn for businesses by cutting inherited EU red tape.
The 102-page Cabinet Office document also lays out the five-step approach to forging new post-Brexit, UK-specific regulations, pledging to “use our new freedom to act quickly and nimbly” in a bid to create “better markets”.
Other changes, including making trade documents digital and streamlining procurement rules, are proposed in a bid to save billions of pounds for British businesses.
Mr Johnson said Brexit’s exit from the bloc on January 31 2020 marked “not the final page of the story, but the start of a whole new chapter”.
He predicted a “future in which we don’t sit passively outside the European Union but seize the incredible opportunities that our freedom presents and use them to build back better than ever before – making our businesses more competitive and our people more prosperous”.
The Prime Minister continued: “Untangling ourselves from 40 years of EU membership, keeping what works, changing what doesn’t, supporting new industries, reinvigorating older ones and firmly planting the British flag on the world stage once again.
“This is a hugely exciting time for our country, one filled with potential and opportunity. The bolder we are, the greater the gains will be for us all.”
The publication of the paper comes after Downing Street announced it will bring forward a “Brexit Freedoms” Bill to make it easier to amend outdated EU law – a target that is expanded upon within the scoping paper.
The Bill will affect the handling of retained EU law – Brussels-made regulations which were preserved in the UK statute book for legal continuity after the Brexit transition period ended in 2020.
With primary legislation required currently to change even minor details from the body of retained law, No 10 has argued it would take “several years” to change or scrap outdated rules. The reformed plan is to instead allow the “acquis” of laws to be amended by way of secondary legislation to allow for “agile regulation”. Critics say the change will help to dilute Parliament’s oversight of rule changes by ministers. Speaking to broadcasters in Essex yesterday, the Prime Minister said that, while the UK will not diverge from the EU rulebook “for the sake of it”, the legislation will help secure investment in cutting-edge technologies.
“There are things we can do differently and we think in a way that will encourage business to invest even more,” the Prime Minister told broadcasters during a visit to Tilbury Docks.
“In all the areas where the UK is strong – cyber, AI, all the cutting-edge technologies – we are going to make sure we do things differently and better, where appropriate.”
The Benefits Of Brexit paper lists a number of areas where the UK Government hopes to allow for advancement, including by: making it easier to run clinical health trials; paving the way for quantum technologies research; removing EU regulations on Britain’s wine sector; and taking advantage of advancements in autonomous vehicles and drone technology.
THESE days, observing what’s going on in politics sometimes entails entering a parallel universe.
While Boris Johnson fights for his political life, his government has published a document which would have us believe that Brexit has been a roaring success.
Entitled “The Benefits of Brexit”, it has already raised the hackles of ministers in Wales and Scotland.
Its publication coincides with news that the UK Government plans to introduce a piece of legislation that has already attracted the nickname the “Brexit Freedoms Bill”, and which is aimed at making it easier to amend or remove EU laws that remained on the UK statute book after Brexit as a bridging measure to provide legal certainty to business and society.
Without so far offering any explanation of how such a saving will be achieved, the UK Government claims it will be able to cut £1bn of “red tape” for UK businesses.
Such an assertion will be greeted with derision by those businesses in Wales and elsewhere in the UK which have been faced with the imposition of huge amounts of new bureaucracy since we left the single market and customs union at the beginning of 2021.
In some cases, business people in Wales have had to end their relationship with longstanding suppliers and customers in EU countries because the cost of post-Brexit customs barriers has made it uneconomic to trade with the UK.
After Mr Johnson said the Brexit Freedoms Bill would “further unleash the benefits of Brexit”, Attorney General Suella Braverman said it was “vital” to create a mechanism to do away with EU laws that she claimed were created as a result of “unsatisfactory compromises” by the bloc’s member states and now had “no democratic legitimacy” in the UK.
“Setting up a mechanism to deal with these legacy EU rules is essential,” she said. “It underpins our ability to grasp important opportunities provided by Brexit.”
Such assertions by Ms Braverman are high on rhetoric but low on detail. In fact they are reminiscent of calls made to radio phone-in programmes by Brexit supporters who expressed hatred for the imposition of EU laws on the UK while being unable to specify a single piece of legislation of which they disapproved.
At the weekend Welsh and Scottish ministers took part in a hastily arranged conference call with Ms Braverman.
One of the people on the call told
the Financial Times: “Braverman was just reading from her screen, going on about ‘Brexit opportunities’ but when there were questions she only responded with platitudes.
“The whole meeting was called at the last minute, as if to say ‘This is what we’re going to do’.”
The devolved administrations fear the planned legislation will hand powers to Westminster in areas such as fisheries as well as environmental, food and water standards, which have long been devolved to Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Ministers also yesterday published a 100-page “Benefits of Brexit” policy document that will set out areas where the government believes deregulation after leaving the EU can help the country gain a competitive edge in areas such as gene editing and artificial intelligence.
Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government’s Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, said the UK Government’s approach was driving a “coach and horses through the con
cept of mutual consent” on which the devolution settlement was designed to operate.
“The UK Government has been unable to provide assurances that its plans for future changes in dealing with ‘retained’ EU law would not affect the devolution settlement,” he said.
Scotland’s Minister for the Constitution Angus Robertson described the Brexit Freedoms Bill as another move to erode the powers of the devolved administrations.
“What this Brexit document is about is the next phase of a postBrexit power grab,” he said. “They will argue it’s about the efficiency of the market and creating an effective level playing field, but it’s not really about that.”
The UK Government said details of the Brexit Freedoms Bill would be outlined “in due course”, adding: “We continue to work closely with the devolved administrations to ensure that a common approach can be taken where powers and law have
returned from the EU which intersect with policy areas that fall within devolved competence.”
Meanwhile, an examination of the document called “The Benefits of Brexit” shows that much of it is based on the fantasy that the UK can exist as an economic entity that is self-sufficient.
A section headed “Making the most of our regulatory freedoms” states: “We now have the opportunity to set ourselves apart and deliver bespoke UK-orientated regulation that is primarily focused on delivering growth, innovation and competition while minimising burdens on business.
“Brexit allows us to deliver this new approach across all areas of our economy for the benefit of all parts of the UK. Made well, regulation can provide markets with a framework to operate, grow and innovate within.
“But all too often regulation is produced with inflexible rules, heavy compliance costs and enforcement that has not kept pace with modern times.
“…Freedom from the EU gives us the ability to supercharge the sectors where we already have competitive advantage, driving economic growth, unleashing investment and creating jobs.
“The government is committed to building on our international competitiveness in sectors such as financial services and fintech, automotive, digital, green energy and the creative industries. Regulation is an important tool in doing this.
“Better regulations, co-created with businesses, will also benefit the future industries where we can build new competitive advantages and set our economy apart.
“We will provide flexible frameworks and rules created in collaboration with these sectors, bear down on compliance costs and ensure enforcement is modernised and joined up.
“Rules will be proportionate to the real or likely harms, not precautionary and risk averse, except in areas where it is justified, like protecting the environment.”
The triumphant tone is possible because the author simply ignores the fact that the UK will be unable to trade with the EU if its lower regulatory standards – for that is what they are – fail to comply with EU requirements.
Other “benefits” outlined in the document include the reintroduction of “our iconic blue passports”; reviewing the EU ban on imperial markings and sale, “giving businesses and consumers more choice over the measurements they use”; and enabling businesses to use a crown stamp symbol on pint glasses.
According to “The Benefits of Brexit”, the “Crown Stamp is a proud emblem of our heritage that people remain fond of. We have begun the process of allowing it to be used once again, a fitting tribute to Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.”
More sinisterly, the document states that “our UK Defence and Security Industrial Strategy sets the framework for a deeper, more sophisticated and strategic relationship with industry and promotes investment in the UK and defence exports.
“It includes a package of legislative reform, policy changes and internal transformation that will improve the speed and simplicity of procurement, provide more flexibility in how we procure and support capability and stimulate innovation and technology exploitation.”
In other words, the plan is to streamline the rules and make it easier for Britain to buy and sell weapons.
This is nothing to celebrate.