British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on Thursday published a draft bill to formally end Britain’s membership of the EU, but opposition parties and the leaders of Scotland and Wales threatened to block what they called a “naked power-grab.”
The bill would repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, convert an estimated 12,000 existing European regulations into British law and end the supremacy of EU legislation.
“This bill means that we will be able to exit the European Union with maximum certainty, continuity and control,” British Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis said.
However, ministers are braced for a battle over provisions that give them new powers to amend the EU laws as they are transferred without full parliamentary scrutiny.
These so-called “Henry VIII” powers would be limited for two years, but opposition parties warn they could be used to force through changes to other legislation.
The opposition Labour Party threatened to hold up the bill with amendments, while the leaders of Scotland and Wales also warned they would not support it.
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones said the bill was “a naked power-grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilize our economies.”
May’s minority government remains fragile one month after a snap June 8 election in which her Conservative Party lost its majority, forcing it to seek an alliance with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.
May began the two-year process of leaving the EU on March 29. Extricating Britain from four decades of membership is no small task and the new European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is one of eight Brexit bills the government plans to introduce.
May appealed to rivals to work with her, saying she wanted the “biggest possible consensus,” but Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer vowed to fight the “sweeping new powers for ministers that are fundamentally undemocratic, unaccountable and unacceptable.”
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