LONDON — The U.K. will water down its timetable for replacing or removing thousands of EU laws post-Brexit, scrapping a self-imposed December 2023 deadline.
The government climbdown — announced Thursday — comes amid pushback to the Retained EU Law Bill from Conservative Party MPs and members of the House of Lords. Lawmakers have called for the timetable to be slowed and for parliament to have more scrutiny over the major regulatory overhaul.
The approach also drew flak from British businesses who warned it created serious regulatory uncertainty.
The bill, championed by former Business Secretary and arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, originally contained a “sunset clause” which would have automatically deleted every EU law which hadn’t already been reviewed by the government from the U.K. statute books at the end of this year.
But Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has now amended the bill so that only several hundred laws, which will be publicly announced by the government ahead of time, will be subject to the 2023 sunset clause.
The move is likely to anger Tory Brexiteers who want to see the U.K. quickly move away from retained EU legislation.
“I have listened to the concerns of business of all sizes and have made it a priority to tackle the red tape that holds back UK firms, reduces their competitiveness in global markets and hampers their growth,” Badenoch said.
The government said its decision to change the sunset clause would allow it to more properly target laws in need of reform and to ensure vital safety regulations were not unintentionally removed.
This developing story is being updated.
