The UK’s ambitions to repeal all remaining EU-made legislation are making Brussels quake while the Retained EU Law Bill is still being discussed in both Houses of Parliament.
After peers discussed the proposal in the House of Lords on Monday, EU officials were “worried the UK will become too competitive” after Brexit, according to Italian MEP Marco Zanni.
The MEP made the remarks while distributing a note with the subject line “EU worried UK is becoming too competitive,” which stated: “We hear the first voices from Brussels threatening a trade war with the UK over the Retained EU Law Bill, which is to retire all EU regulations in the UK by the end of the year.”
According to business minister Lord Callanan, the Bill will be the next stage in “untangling” Britain from its decades-long membership in Brussels.
Speaking in the House of Lord, Crossbench peer Lord Wilson of Dinton said: “There is no way to get away from it, it is a bad Bill because it will create uncertainty in business and in our communities, and you have heard about the number of organisations which have made that clear,”
Lord Heseltine attacked Brexit supporters, comparing one to a fanatical leader of the French Revolution, and said the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill proved “they did not know what they were doing.”
The former Tory deputy prime minister, whose nickname in government was Tarzan, said that the proposed legislation “created a giant question mark” over a swathe of laws that separated civilisation “from the law of the jungle.”
In a period of “economic stress,” the non-affiliated peer also cautioned that it may jeopardise inbound investment.
However, his former party colleague Lords Dobbs denounced demands for unelected lords to “tear the Bill apart,” calling such a move “utterly undemocratic.”
