In Labour’s manifesto this year, Keir Starmer cannily sought to reassure any Brexiteers out there by ruling out a return to the EU single market. But, being a lawyer, he carefully inserted a small-print proviso. The Labour leader said that he did not rule out doing much the same thing by realigning Britain piecemeal with EU standards as opportunity presented itself.
This process he has now started. As the eagle-eyed Lord Frost pointed out yesterday in the House of Lords, the government’s boring-sounding Product Regulation and Metrology Bill is something of a Trojan horse. While it generally covers product safety and weights and measures, a sneakily-inserted Clause 1(2) also expressly allows the government to import wholesale EU regulations on products’ environmental impact for no better reason than that they are – well – EU regulations.
Labour is, it seems, playing a long game here
Lord Frost is, of course, right. This case needs to worry us for a number of reasons.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in