Lord David Frost has blasted Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour Party for trying to scaremonger over UK plans to rip up EU red tape. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ordered an audit of the 3,745 laws copied over when Britain left the bloc in what Brexiteers hope could end the legacy of Brussels red tape. The audit, which will be concluded by the end of next year, will allow officials to either keep in full, amend or scrap each piece of legislation, depending on what is most beneficial.
However, the Labour Party has warned that the Government’s review threatens rights such as the minimum maternity leave period of 14 weeks, the working time directive and limits on air pollution.
Lord Frost called out Labour for peddling “fiction” over the review of all rules inherited from Brussels.
He criticised the Labour reaction as the latest Remainer scaremongering.
Speaking in the House of Lords, the former Brexit negotiator said that the review means EU laws “will be dropped or they will be retained or they will be restated”.
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He added: “There is an attempt being made to suggest that the only option is the first one, that all these laws that are an essential part of our regulatory framework will somehow disappear and people should be very frightened about that prospect.
“That is obviously not going to happen. This is a fiction and is not in any way the Government’s intention.”
Lord Frost warned that calls from opposition parties to exclude swathes of EU rules from the review would give them “quasi-constitutional status”.
He added: “Forgive me if I take with a pinch of salt the suggestion that these laws and each suggestion for an exclusion are somehow a perfect emanation of the wonderful European lawmaking process.”
The former prime minister told Sky News that the recent attempts to find a compromise with the EU could create more problems rather than solve them.
Mr Johnson insisted that the “best way forward” is to continue to pass the legislation he introduced as PM to allow the UK to unilaterally tear up parts of the Brexit deal rather than negotiating with Brussels.
All Tory MPs are required to be in the Commons on Monday next week, prompting speculation that Prime Minster Sunak’s deal could be announced then.
The plans, which face opposition from the unionist DUP and Tory Brexiteers, are expected to end EU checks on most British goods sent to Northern Ireland.
It could also restore the UK’s right to set tax policy in Northern Ireland, which was effectively still left in the EU’s single market after Brexit.
Northern Ireland is still expected to be subject to some EU trade laws.
