THE government has watered down a promise to enshrine workers’ rights and environmental safeguards in law while the Brexit Bill is being prepared to be reintroduced in Parliament this week.

Downing Street suggested that PM Boris Johnson is no longer committed to pledges he made to MPs in October in order to garner their votes in support of his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), according to the Independent.

Its draft included provisions to ensure that workers’ rights were not weakened after Brexit, but Downing Street refused to confirm that a new draft of the Bill would include them.

Also ditched is a promise that MPs would be given a vote on whether or not to extend the transition period at the end of 2020 to avoid leaving the EU without a deal.

The WAB passed its early stages in the Commons before Mr Johnson called a general election that resulted in him gaining an 80-seat majority last week.

The Bill will be brought before the Commons on Friday — and could be debated at first and second reading in one day if the Speaker agrees to the timetable.

It will follow the Queen formally opening Parliament on Thursday, when she sets out the government’s legislative programme during a slimmed-down state opening.

Mr Johnson said during the election campaign that he would start the process of exiting the EU before Christmas Day if he is elected as PM.

The government would attempt to push the WAB through its final Commons stages in January and will hope it then clears the Lords in time to signal Britain’s departure from the EU on January 31.

Britain will remain in the EU until at least the end of 2020 in an implementation period while Britain and the EU try to hammer out a trade deal and decide on a future relationship.

But in recent leaked comments, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the timetable was “unrealistic.”

Meanwhile two Tory former ministers — Alistair Burt and Andrew Mitchell — have attacked Mr Johnson’s plan to have the Foreign & Commonwealth Office swallow up the Department for International Development (DfID), which delivers foreign aid.

Mr Burt, a former DfiD minister who stood down at the election, said: “DfID as a stand-alone department has given the UK an outstanding reputation. It runs very well.”