Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour’s effort to allow the UK government to adopt new EU single market rules without parliamentary approval was in the “UK’s best interest”.
Fresh legislation to be presented after May is set to allow the government to adopt EU single market rules without approvals from MPs.
So-called secondary legislation, Henry VIII-era clauses that allows ministers to make changes without having to wait months for parliamentary approval, would be used to apply new ‘Brexit reset’ agreements if Labour gets a bill through in the next year.
Tory and Reform UK officials have hit out at the plans and labelled them a “betrayal” of Brexit.
But Sir Keir Starmer said the changes would be made for the “UK’s best interest”.
“We’re in a world where there’s massive conflict, great uncertainty, and I strongly believe that the UK’s best interests are in a stronger, closer relationship with Europe, whether that’s defence and security, energy, inevitably, and also, our economy,” Starmer said.
He said the proposal would first have to be backed by parliament but the new framework for UK-EU relations was “trying to make trade easier so there are less burdens for businesses”.
“That, of course, translates into lower prices, particularly with the deal we’ve got with the EU. This is predominantly food and agricultural prices, which I think most people would say – whatever we could do to get those prices down is a step in the right direction.
“I think it’s also a sense, 10 years on from the Brexit referendum, that we’ve got to look forward now, not backwards.
“Let’s not just have all the old arguments of the last decade.”
EU single market row angers opposition
The Labour government last year struck deals with the EU on food and drinks standards as well as energy markets.
The new bill, which will be presented to MPs after next month’s King’s Speech, will include details on the first set of agreements made last year.
The enabling of the use of secondary legislation would allow the UK government to agree to other areas of single market access without having to go through parliamentary scrutiny each time.
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said the idea was “a backdoor attempt to drag Britain back under European Union control”.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the plan would make parliament “reduced to a spectator” and allow the EU to set rules on the UK’s behalf.
“Labour’s dire management of the economy has driven Starmer scurrying to Brussels to distract from his own failings,” he said.
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