Theresa May has risked the fury of Brexiteer MPs by announcing plans to keep the UK under EU laws for a further 21 months.
The 1972 European Communities Act will not be fully repealed until the end of the planned transition period, at the end of 2020 – rather than on exit day next year.
Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary told MPs the move was necessary to “ensure the statute book functions properly….in accordance with the agreement we have made with the EU”. But it is certain to enrage pro-Brexit MPs – who had been promised the 1972 Act, which took the UK into the then-common market, would be scrapped in March 2019.
It is certain to provoke protests that the UK has not really left the EU next year – and will require amending the EU Withdrawal Act, passed into law only last month. Read more