by Our News Desk
THERESA MAY announced a “Great Repeal Bill” yesterday which would take Britain out of the European Union — but Labour said that what Brexit would mean in practice was no clearer than before.
The Prime Minister, speaking on the Andrew Marr Show and later at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, said she would trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, formally starting the exit negotiations, in the first three months of 2017.
Her Great Repeal Bill would ditch the 1972 European Communities Act which stipulates that all EU law automatically applies in Britain.
At the same time it would transfer all EU law into domestic law, according to Brexit Secretary David Davis, leaving any alterations to it to “elected politicians.”
On Friday, the TUC demanded that the government come clean on what it termed “EU-guaranteed rights like parental leave, protection from excessive working hours and protections for part-timers and agency workers,” saying that, 100 days on from Britain’s June 23 vote to withdraw, people were “still in the dark.”
“No-one voted to put their rights at work in jeopardy,” general secretary Frances O’Grady said.
But Mr Davis claimed the Conservatives were not planning a post-Brexit bonfire of rights at work.
“To those who are trying to frighten British workers, saying: ‘When we leave, employment rights will be eroded,’ I say, firmly and unequivocally, no they won’t,” he insisted.
Labour condemned the Prime Minister for providing “very few answers” on how the government plans to negotiate its exit.
“She gave very little detail on her supposed big idea of a ‘Great Repeal Act’ other than it’s an ambition,” shadow minister Jon Ashworth said.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry added: “Unless Theresa May starts spelling out the government’s plan on free trade, on free movement, on budget contributions and a host of other issues, we will have to conclude she is only interested in achieving headlines, not providing solutions.
“A commitment on the timing of article 50 is meaningless unless Theresa May can answer questions about what deal Britain is going to propose for our future relationship with the EU, what the plan is to secure that deal and what we will do if it fails.”
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