Johnson revises EU bill to limit parliament's role in Brexit talks

Johnson revises EU bill to limit parliament's role in Brexit talks

Protections for workers and child refugees also cut out of withdrawal agreement bill

Rowena Mason and Frances Perraudin

Thu 19 Dec 2019 17.06 GMTLast modified on Thu 19 Dec 2019 18.31 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/19/johnson-revises-eu-bill-to-limit-parliaments-role-in-brexit-talks

Boris Johnson’s EU withdrawal agreement bill has been published, with protections on workers’ rights, unaccompanied refugee children and parliament’s say over the future relationship stripped out.

MPs are expecting to vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill for the first time in this parliament on Friday, as Johnson aims to rush it through its first stage before Christmas.

The new bill scraps or waters down a number of key protections that were in the last one published in October, when Johnson was trying to get the support of some backbench Labour MPs to get it through parliament.

It removes an entire schedule that promised to protect workers’ rights, with the government suggesting this will now be dealt with in separate legislation.

Ministers will no longer be bound by the legislation to provide updates on the future trading relationship or to make sure parliament approves the government’s negotiating objectives.

In a third change, a commitment to take unaccompanied refugee children from Europe, known as the Dubs amendment, is watered down. The legislation acknowledges this is still an aim but does not make a legal promise to take them.

A No 10 spokesman said: “We are committed to ensuring that children who are claiming asylum or international protection will be reunited with specified family members in the EU and vice versa.

 “The government’s policy on child refugees has not changed and we will continue to do all we can to enable children to claim asylum and be reunited with their families, which the legislation published today reaffirms.”

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said the changes showed the Tories now want to “tear up those protections” for refugee children.

In terms of additions, the bill introduces a clause to rule out an extension to the transitional period, and powers to let lower courts overrule judgments from the European court of justice.

The bill overall hands much greater power to Johnson’s government to shape a harder Brexit without the checks and balances of parliament.

Backbench Labour MPs and some soft Brexit Tories had fought to get concessions into the previous versions of the bill, but Johnson no longer has any need for their votes as he has a majority of 80.

Labour is expected to vote against the bill, along with the Lib Dems and the SNP. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, accused Johnson of having “deliberately resurrected the threat of no deal at the end of next year, which would decimate industry and destroy people’s jobs”.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader, said the bill would hurt Scotland’s economy and cost thousands of jobs north of the border, taking a “wrecking ball to our economic and social foundations”.

Conservative MPs cheered as the House of Commons agreed to sit on Friday for the second reading of the bill.