UK ditches post-Brexit plan to scrap EU laws by year end

London: Britain's bonfire of European Union laws has been reduced to embers. The UK government on Wednesday scrapped a plan to remove all remaining EU laws, about 4,000 in all, from British statute books by the end of this year - a post-Brexit goal that critics said was rash and unachievable.

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said in a written statement that the government would instead draw up a list of about 600 specific laws that would be revoked. Badenoch acknowledged there were "risks of legal uncertainty" if all EU laws were ditched by the end of the year.

A lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, Jenny Chapman, called the announcement "a humiliating U-turn from a weak and divided government."


Thousands of pieces of EU law were cut-and-pasted into UK legislation when Britain left the bloc in 2020 after decades of membership, to ensure continuity for people and businesses.

The government's Retained EU Law Bill would have automatically removed all of them at the end of the year unless they were explicitly replaced or retained. Champions of Brexit said the move would slash red tape and loosen regulation for businesses. Critics argued that reviewing a huge number of laws in a rush would lead to rules being rewritten without proper parliamentary scrutiny.