Michael Gove and Josh Whittingdale have prompted the CBI to tell them what laws and rules they would like to see abolished or reformed when Britain leaves the EU. This is despite Theresa May saying Britain will carry EU laws over when Britain leaves the EU.
Lose workers rights, the Brexit plan
Gove was talking in response to report that the Conservative government has commissioned. In it Marc Bolland, the ex-chief executive of Marks & Spencers, in the report he ran a list of EU protections he would like to see gone, a list many in employment might not be so happy to see go.
these include the working time directive, acquired rights directive, the agency workers directive and the new pregnant worker proposals. If these laws suddenly disappear, we may start to see many Brexiters wondering exactly why they have voted to handicap their own lives in such a way.
Gove and Whittingdale questioned CBI director general, Carolyn Fairbairn, at a session of the Commons committee on exiting the EU. they asked her if she could come back to the committee with what would be the official CBI on the proposal written in the government report.
They also questioned her on had the CBI looked at rules that could be relaxed to allow British business to be more competitive. This is an attempt to make it look like the EU worker's protections are harmful to business and indeed a burden on many companies, rather than protections that are there to benefit society.
John Longworth, the former chair of the British Chamber of Commerce, suggests that we should, for instance, remove the limits on overtime, particularly he feels for lorry drivers. As what the UK needs after it leaves the EU is tired lorry drivers hurtling down roads with a lack of concentration, all in the hope someone can make a little more profit.
The CBI fights back
Fairburn, pleasingly, stood her ground and told the committee her members were more worried by losing access to one of their main trading partners, than with worrying around silly anecdotal tales that the MPs were telling her.
The good news is that the government can not just repeal EU laws, which seems to be something Theresa May understands, as they are woven into British laws.
This process has taken decades and as such will take decades to find, pinpoint, and change. It will not be able to happen overnight.
The next one is the product labeling guidelines, that we always hear about. Well, those rules come from the WTO, the body that Brexiters tell us we will join when we leave the EU. So the good news is our packaging will just stay the same.
This brings up the WTO.The fall back plan if we feel we can not negotiate with the EU. The problem is if we join the WTO before we have an amicable parting from the EU, the EU as an existing part of the WTO can launch a trade dispute. Then we can look at years of fighting and no trade agreements.
