Four years after Brexit, why are we still governed by the laws of a foreign power?

Why hasn’t the government ditched all EU laws, as they promised?

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

A Facts4EU report on our snail-like progress in becoming a sovereign country

On 29 June 2023 the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2023 (the ‘REUL Act’) received Royal Assent. This Act paved the way for significant regulatory reforms, enabling the removal of retained EU law (‘REUL’) from the UK statute book.

Sadly, this simply has not happened. Progress in this area can at best be characterised as going at a snail’s pace.

Yesterday we revealed just how many new EU legal instruments Brexit Britain has dodged in the four years since we left the EU. In today’s report we present the limited actions that have been taken on the EU regulations in place prior to that and question what Mr Sunak’s Government and the Whitehall Civil Service are doing. It is now four years after we exited the EU and nearly eight years after the British people voted to leave.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Repealing retained EU laws (REUL) – the official numbers so far

Unchanged : 4,524
Repealed : 1,369
Amended : 759
Expired : 62
Replaced : 39
‘TBC’ : 4
TOTAL : 6,757

[Source : Dept for Business and Trade, ‘Retained EU Law Parliamentary Report’, 24 Jan 2024.]

The official statistics from the UK Government on EU laws are ludicrous

When the Government first produced the numbers of EU laws affecting the UK we ridiculed them. When they upped the numbers considerably we ridiculed them again. Now we must do so for a third time.

To date, government departments have only identified 6,757 EU laws. This is a woeful performance. The true number is a significant multiple of this figure. Perhaps the reason they have not identified more is because it allows them to quote a “Percentage repealed/amended/replaced” which is far higher than the reality and which therefore flatters to deceive.

It is important for readers to understand that even the understated number of EU laws is only the tip of the iceberg. On top of this are ‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’, and a variety of other rules, judgements, case law, and other issues to deal with.

Comments from former Secretary of State the Rt Hon Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg MP

"The benefits of Brexit will accelerate as we throw EU rules overboard.
"We are still weighed down by too much EU baggage as this excellent report shows."
- The Rt Hon Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, commenting to Facts4EU.Org and CIBUK.Org, 06 Feb 2024

What is REUL and why is it so important?

Originally the Government promised automatically to repeal all EU laws that had not been amended, by the end of last year (2023). That never happened.

By law the Government now has to produce a six-monthly report on ‘Retained EU Laws’ – what is referred to as ‘REUL’. We have reported on REUL several times, because for a country to be independent and sovereign it must operate under its own laws, not those of a foreign power.

Unfortunately the Dept for Business and Trade’s statutory REUL report last week shows how progress so far has been lamentable and how there are no signs that this is going to change. We should add that the Dept for Business and Trade acts as the collections body for information coming from all government departments about EU laws affecting their own areas of operations. The problem therefore affects government as a whole.

Statement from the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade

“The Brexit vote was the beginning of a new chapter for the UK, enabling us to seize our own future and prioritise the best interests of the British people. The enactment of the REUL Act was a platform for execution of that ambition.
“It created powers to streamline the process of amending the EU laws that we had retained after our 40-year membership and ensures that, for the first time in a generation, the supremacy of EU law and EU general principles have been removed from our statute book.

“Taking back control of our laws is about ensuring the law serves the national interest by reducing the regulatory burden and controlling the flow of new regulation. I understand that when governments tie business up in red tape it holds them back, reducing their global competitiveness and impeding growth.

“The REUL Act speeds up the process of removing years of burdensome EU regulation in favour of a more agile regulatory approach that benefits the UK. New regulatory approaches will be designed to give businesses more opportunity to innovate, experiment, and capitalise on the UK’s global leadership in areas such as technology, life sciences, and digital services.”

- The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, 24 Jan 2024

A Facts4EU.Org advisory to Mrs Badenoch

Unfortunately the Secretary of State does not seem to know that the UK’s membership of the EEC/EU did not endure for 40 years as she stated, but for 47 years - from 1973.

Perhaps this is because Mrs Badenoch wasn’t born until 1980.

Observations

The British people are generally a tolerant lot, but there are limits

The performance of the Government and the Whitehall Civil Service in regard to repealing the EU’s foreign laws governing the British people is frankly a disgrace.

We were promised that all EU laws which had not been amended would be repealed by default at the end of last year. Now it seems there is a vague target to do something by the end of 2026. This will be 10 years after the people voted to leave the EU.

We consider this to be wholly unacceptable.

As with the repeated broken promises to control immigration, it seems that our Government and the Whitehall Civil Service simply will not effect the will of the people. The performance is so woeful we can only consider this to be a deliberate act by Whitehall to keep the United Kingdom as closely aligned to EU law as possible, in order to make a re-entry much easier.

We feel it important to warn the Westminster bubble and Whitehall that they are on the brink of playing with fire. This is regardless of which party is in power. We can only hope that they will all wake up and smell the kindling.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

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[ Sources: Dept for Business and Trade | House of Commons Library ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 06 Feb 2024

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Reader Comments 12

1. Old Albion , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 07:09:

"Why hasn’t the government ditched all EU laws, as they promised?"
Probably because they are an incompetent rabble packed with remainiacs .................

2. Sparky , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 07:14:

It is too simplistic to just remove these laws just because you hate the EU. Now the horrendous period of chaos with Johnson, Truss, ERG influence etc are behind us a more pragmatic, sensible, responsible Govt is now in place and we are seeing the results in Northern Ireland this week and more positive relationship with our closest neighbours. There are more important issues to deal with that will actually make a difference to the UK, the NHS and economy being the main ones. Sadly for the Conservatives it is too late, there has been too much damage, broken promises and lack of delivery. The country and economy needs stability after the commotion of the last eight years.

3. Have You Wondered , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 08:51:

1. Old Albion
.
Talking of govt. incompetance - hot off todays european press:
.
"In 2013, the Belgian State could still boast broad support (73.8% confidence) among the population in the south of the country, as could the Walloon Region (70.8%). Even the European Commission had the support of a majority of citizens (59%)."
.
"Ten years on, however, this support has dropped strongly: just 39% of Francophone residents have confidence in the Belgian State, only 35.2% in Wallonia, and no more than 37% in the European Commission. The Walloon Parliament has also fallen by the wayside (from 62.9% in 2018 to 33.7% last year)."
.
The whole article is worth a read in the Brussels press for an insight into democracy, decision making, corruption et al.
.

4. terence patrick hewett , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 10:03:

Again, it is treating the symptoms instead of the disease: nothing will be done until a thorough Constitutional Reformation is effected. Westminster and its institutions are rotten to their fetid heart.

5. Have You Wondered, , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 10:19:

.
4. terence patrick hewett
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To be blunt - Westminster needs an enema .
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Have You Wondered, if when you look over the last 40 yrs of tribal politics and to where it has led to the present day with the UK ‘silverware’ sold off and asset stripped, rife uncontrolled corruption in Westminster, lies and incompetence and the laughable PMQ's 'Punch and Judy show of tribal politics sustained to keep a party in power and disregarding the electorate welfare and security – we do need a complete new regime change.
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But who? Could Tice and Farage make it any worse?
.
If the same 3 mainstream contenders are the only parties on offer, I'm tempted to spoil my vote paper with the words 'none worthy of my vote'
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Which party would readers suggest to vote for to eradicate the present corrupt, tribal squabbling incumbents?
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Indeed. As I keep reiterating:
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Why does the UK (or any other nation) need another level of corruption and malfeasance above that which the UK has already?
.

6. John Jones , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 12:09:

I'm going to share a dirty secret of the Trade & Cooperation Act - the FTA we signed with theEU.
Plus, the earlier Withdrawal Act which we also signed & includes the Northern Ireland Protocol & now the equally bad Windsor Framework.
The dirty secret is that both the WA and the TCA have a significant degree of retained EU law which is necessary to ensure that international treaty obligations are kept for trading purposes - this is one of the principal reasons why the govt can't simply rip up EU law - it's vital for the UK to trade with Rest of World under WTO terms.
Here's the problem - pre Referendum the Government made no plans, actually prevented planning for Brexit - this meant and still means we are discovering a web of EU laws that still apply to us - it will take decades to fix and isn't a quick fix for any lurking little Englanders/&: other swivel eyed loons.
Sadly retained EU law's are not particularly nice but they are a reality to make global/WTO trade to be effective.

7. Have You Wondered , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 15:23:

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"Four years after Brexit, why are we still governed by the laws of a foreign power?"
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Alas -some will never be free.
.
Search: " irelands establishment parties are panicking about the public backlash against mass immigration but their europhilia means they are left defenceless "
.
"In the end, the Irish have given so much power to Brussels by being “European” that the EU will break them if they actually take steps to stop the vast wave of immigrants into Ireland. They sold out to the EU years ago. Maybe they will now start to understand what sovereignty means, and how they don’t have any left."
.

8. jon iivesey , Tuesday, February 06, 2024, 18:44:

Strange to see facts4eu perpetuating such an obvious fallacy. It's a bit like African dictatorships claiming that their latest bit of tyranny is just a "colonial era law" they have to apply. If you choose to keep law on the book after the book itself comes back under your control, that is *your* decision, not someone else's. We are not "controlled" by any EU laws at all. We can remove them any time we like, subject to any voluntary agreements we have made. If Parliament has decided to keep the wording of what used to be an EU regulation on the books, then they have decided to do that, not the EU.
If you make an agreement with someone, that is your choice, and if you decide to keep regulations on the books that were originally written by someone else, that is also your choice. And if you find your actions are influenced by economic forces, such as the desire to export to countries that have their own regulations for imports, so is everyone else.
The so-called Brexit "debate" keeps rolling on, despite the vast majority of the country having no real interest any more, because most of the noise-makers are simply incapable of thinking straight, and recently that has included facts4eu.
It makes me wonder if both sides in this idiotic "debate" have an interest in keeping it going simply to preserve their own dwindling significance.

9. jon iivesey , Wednesday, February 07, 2024, 01:03:

6. John Jones , Thinks he has discovered a "dirty secret" which actually does not exist. If you have agreements that are contingent on something - some EU law, for example - then you have the option of renegotiating the agreement, or retaining the Law. But now it is *your* law, not EU law, no matter who wrote the wording. You are retaining it at your option.,
I wish Sparky an his imaginary friends could make their minds up between "We are still in the EU", and "Being out of the EU is a disaster". You can't really have both, unless you are terminally dishonest ad shameless.

10. jon iivesey , Wednesday, February 07, 2024, 01:06:

Is Sparky ever going to tell us the wonderful Remain/Labour immigration policy that is going to be so much better than legal, controlled immigration administered by the UK? He says there is such a magic policy but he is awfully coy about what it is. Does it really exist?

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