Europe (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Sir Keir Starmer is preparing legislation to give ministers powers to align UK law with EU rules to reduce red tape and boost growth.
The measure, which will be introduced this year as part of the government’s Brexit reset, would give ministers broad authority to “dynamic align” the UK with EU legislation in a number of areas, including food standards, animal welfare, and pesticide use.
It is acknowledged that agreements made with the EU, such as those to harmonize carbon and electricity markets or regulations for plants and animals, might be implemented with the additional authorities.
Although it is hoped that dynamic alignment will lessen costly and time-consuming paperwork for providers who wish to sell to the single market, ministers contend that it would have little real impact because UK food firms have already mostly complied with EU regulations since Brexit.
The government used to have a vote on new rules that Brussels passed when the UK was a member of the EU. However, in order to maintain dynamic alignment with the trading bloc, the UK would now have to adopt the laws without a vote.
The ideas are anticipated to be opposed by both Conservative and Reform UK MPs, with the Tories accusing the prime minister of “undoing” Brexit and “surrendering our freedom” to placate his Labour backbenchers.
However,
“all international agreements involve shared rules,”
according to a Labour source.
The Liberal Democrats, who accuse the administration of being “too timid” in its aspirations for relations with Brussels, are urging the government to go even farther and negotiate a customs union with the EU.
In a Commons vote last month, some 13 Labour MPs supported ideas that would open the way for a customs union, putting pressure on Sir Keir from his own backbenchers to change his mind.
After years of conflict and mistrust under the Conservatives, Sir Keir pledged as prime minister to repair Britain’s relationship with Brussels and the bloc.
Additionally, the prime minister hinted over the weekend that if the move is in the country’s best interests, the government would be willing to integrate even more closely with the EU single market.
After a trade agreement was reached earlier this year, Sir Keir stressed that Britain should “go further” in fortifying post-Brexit relations with Brussels.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg over the weekend, Sir Keir highlighted the actions previously taken to bring agriculture and food closer to the EU, saying,
“That’s the sovereign decision that we have taken.
I think we should get closer, and if it’s in our national interest to have even closer alignment with the single market, then we should consider that, we should go that far.”
He added:
“I think it’s in our national interest to go further.
What I would say about the customs union is that I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge.
I do understand why people are saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to go to the customs union?’ I actually think that now we’ve done deals with the US which are in our national interest, now we’ve done deals with India which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment.”
When asked what compromises he was willing to make in exchange, the prime minister stressed that freedom of movement, a fundamental tenet of the EU single market, was off the table.
A Labour source said:
“The bill will give us the powers to share rules with the EU. All international agreements involve shared rules. That’s their very nature.
We’re confident in making the case for specific trade-offs, where it has clear benefits for businesses and consumers.
Kemi has a short memory – it wasn’t long ago she was making similar arguments, when she U-turned on the Brexit bonfire of EU regulation in the name of pragmatism and what works in the real world.
Yet, the Tories and Reform are keen to protect a broken status quo and want to rip up our deal, all in the name of petty ideology.”
What specific EU laws would the alignment bill cover?
The alignment bill is being drafted as an enabling frame, so it doesn’t list a unrestricted set of EU measures; rather, it creates powers to track EU rules in several broad, named fields rather than across the board. From the reporting so far, the government has briefed four main clusters where those powers are anticipated to be used.
The bill would let ministers stoutly align with EU legislation on food safety and norms, including aseptic and phytosanitary (SPS) rules governing factory and beast products, so that UK exporters can move goods with smaller veterinary and factual checks at EU borders.
Within that, officers have explicitly cited EU rules on animal weal and fungicide use, inferring compass to glass unborn changes to regulations on grazing consistency, transport/ bloodbath rules, and authorisation or restriction of specific crop ‑ protection chemicals.
