The key task for the UK Government remains Brexit. There is a lot of complex work that needs to be done, including negotiating our exit with the EU. We also need to start the process of re-patriating our legal system, which can no longer rely on rules set in Brussels.
That is why the Government has introduced the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which is better known as ‘The Repeal Bill’. It was introduced to Parliament in July and is the first step towards MPs in Parliament once again being fully in control of setting the laws that govern our country.
The aim of the Bill is to ensure that the same laws we live by today will be in place after we formally leave the EU on 30 March 2019. Without it, laws that apply here because we have been in the EU would simply stop applying, leaving gaps in the law in important areas. This Bill will provide certainty and reassurance to us all as workers and consumers, as well as to businesses, that our lives will not be affected at the point of leaving the EU.
The way the Bill will work is to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act that took us into the old European Community, convert EU law into UK law, and create temporary powers for our Government to correct the laws that no longer operate properly in our legal system after we leave.
Although the Repeal Bill itself will not see any changes to our laws, or the rights that protect us, the longer term goal of Brexit is to change our laws to reflect what is right for Britain, rather than Europe as a whole. This is one of the main reasons I supported Leave in the Referendum. In time, our MPs will get to introduce laws that work in this country’s own best interests, reflecting what the British people see as right and just rather than politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels.
The Bill will be complex and in places, controversial. However, it is vital to keeping us on track as we leave the EU, and in the national interest.