Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Hessle and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Labour’s Brexit team, has urged the Prime Minister to bring a repeal bill to Parliament that would lead to a successful Brexit.
The government’s European Union (Withdrawal) Bill- which has the purpose of transferring EU law into UK law- will have its second reading vote in the House of Commons on Monday night. As Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Labour Brexit team, Ms Hardy will be unable by Parliamentary rules to speak on the debate.
The Bill, in its current form, has some very wide ranging powers that could give Ministers the power to amend other pieces of legislation including the Withdrawal Bill itself. The Labour Party has expressed concern that the Bill could have detrimental effects on workplace rights- by, among other things, allowing the Government to remove the Working Time Directive, environmental rights and consumer rights. In its 2017 General Election Manifesto, Labour promised to bring forward an alternative repeal bill to the Government’s repeal bill which would bring about a better Brexit.
There have been widespread expressions of concern about the bill, from MPs of all parties. For example, Dominic Grieve, Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, called the bill ‘an astonishing monstrosity’ in the House of Commons.
Emma said “I agree that the votes of people in Hull West and Hessle must be respected and I am fighting for a good Brexit deal to safeguard jobs, security and workers’ rights. We are leaving the EU in March 2019 because we voted to trigger article 50. This will happen whether this bill is passed or not. This bill is not about whether we leave the EU but how we leave it.
This is a power grab by Theresa May. She should not be using Brexit to hoard powers in Westminster. Nobody voted to take back control and powers from the EU to just give them all to Theresa May.
There is still time for Theresa May to listen to all these concerns before the vote on Monday and, if she does, then it is still possible for there to be agreement on this important issue and a much better bill to be introduced.”
