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LONDON: British lawmakers began debating Thursday a landmark bill to end Britain’s membership of the EU, with Prime Minister Theresa May gearing up for a major battle.
The bill provides for the repeal on Brexit day of the 1972 European Communities Act that conferred Britain’s membership, and also converts estimated 12,000 existing European regulations into British law.
Ministers say it is the first step in implementing last year’s referendum vote for Brexit, and will provide legal continuity to ensure no “cliff-edge” when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.
But critics warn it represents an unprecedented “power-grab” by giving the government broad powers to amend the EU laws as they are transferred without proper parliamentary scrutiny.
May’s Conservative party lost its majority in the House of Commons in a snap election in June, but her alliance with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party means the first stage of the bill should pass.
Interior Minister Amber Rudd was said by several newspapers to be unhappy with the plans, which have been condemned by several business groups as too tough.
May said Thursday that the Repeal bill was “the single most important step we can take to prevent a cliff-edge for people and businesses, because it provides legal certainty” after Brexit.
Officials estimate that around 800 to 1,000 amendments will be needed to the EU laws being transferred — a task too large to involve full parliamentary scrutiny in each case, which is why they want to use the special powers.
The powers would expire two years after Brexit and cannot be used to raise taxes or amend human rights law — but they could be used to implement parts of the final Brexit deal agreed with Brussels.
Labour has said it would seek to defeat the bill when, after two days of debate, it goes to its first vote in the House of Commons on Monday.
“If this is passed in its current form, MPs are effectively relegating themselves to spectators as the baton is passed to the government to do as it likes with Brexit,” Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer told BBC radio.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) and the smaller Liberal Democrats party, which are both pro-European, are also likely to vote against the bill.