Keir Starmer defends fast-tracking EU rules into UK law

Sir Keir Starmer has defended a controversial bill that will allow EU rules to be imported on to the UK statute book with minimal parliamentary scrutiny, insisting it would help cut business costs and bring down prices.

Starmer will bring forward a bill in next month’s King’s Speech creating a fast-track mechanism to transfer EU regulations into British law in areas — such as food standards — where Britain has agreed to “dynamically align” with Brussels rules.

In most cases they will be adopted by so-called Henry VIII powers, secondary legislation through which parliament cannot amend regulations and where they are usually simply rubber-stamped.

The bill, first revealed by the FT last month, has been attacked by politicians on the right, who until now have been reluctant to refight Brexit battles: polls show that Britain’s exit from the EU is now unpopular with voters.

But Starmer told BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday: “We have got to look forward, not backwards. Let’s not have all the old arguments of the last decade.

“We are trying to make trade easier so there are less burdens for business and that translates into lower prices.”

Starmer insisted that Britain needed closer commercial and security ties with Europe in an era of “great uncertainty”.

But Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, said: “Accepting their rules without a vote is a direct betrayal of the Brexit referendum and a total breach of the government’s manifesto promises.

“The British people didn’t vote to become rule-takers, and we will fight this every step of the way.”

Andrew Griffith, Conservative shadow business secretary, said: “Labour are still fighting the referendum because they fundamentally cannot accept the democratic decision the British people made.”

Starmer argues that parliament will fully debate and vote on the legislation which creates the new “alignment” mechanism, when it is brought forward at the centre of next month’s King’s Speech.

A government spokesperson said: “The bill will go through parliament in the normal way . . . This will allow us to deliver a ‘food and drink’ trade deal worth £5.1bn a year, backing British jobs and slashing costly red tape for our farmers, producers and businesses.”

Starmer has argued that Britain will align with EU rules where it is in its economic interest, while chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that divergence from the bloc’s rules should be the “exception rather than the norm.”

Government officials insist that a deal between the EU and UK will mean the UK has a say in “shaping” new EU rules — like any other non-member of the EU with similar arrangements — although no final say. Any disputes will be decided by an independent tribunal.

A Labour official said the last Conservative government used Henry VIII powers to diverge from the Brussels rule book after Brexit so it was “pretty natural” that they are then used for alignment.