Senior Tory MP warns opposition against likely decision to vote down first Brexit legislation over power-grab concerns

Chris Grayling has attacked Labour’s opposition to the controversial “great repeal bill”, ahead of a crucial meeting of the shadow cabinet at which the party is expected to agree to vote down the first Brexit legislation.

The shadow cabinet will make a formal decision on Tuesday, the first day back in parliament for MPs after the summer break. It is expected to whip its MPs to vote against the bill at its second reading in the Commons.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has repeatedly said Labour will not support the bill without significant changes to its content, because of concerns that it would allow ministers to make sweeping changes to legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.

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The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said the party’s actions were disappointing and disrupting the bill’s passage through parliament would lead to a “legal vacuum” when the UK left the EU in March 2019.

“I’m very sorry to see Labour behaving in a way many will see as irresponsible,” he told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Tuesday. “What this bill will actually do is ensure there is not a legal cliff-edge when we leave the EU. We have 40 years of European law on the statute books. You can’t have a situation where, when we leave, there is a complete legal vacuum, so we are taking the existing EU laws, putting them into UK law. This government and future governments will be free to modify as they see fit.”

The bill, which will have its second reading on Thursday, is expected to pass through the hung parliament at the vote next Monday with the help of Democratic Unionist party MPs. However, some pro-Europe Conservative rebels are preparing a slew of amendments to the bill at committee stage.

The bill transposes existing European law into UK law but will involve extensive use of “Henry VIII powers”, which allow ministers to change primary legislation using secondary legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.



Starmer has also voiced concern over the bill’s failure to guarantee “crucial rights and protections” for citizens, and called for assurances that Britain will continue to participate in the single market, customs union and European court of justice during a transition period.

The government’s refusal to bring the EU charter of fundamental rights into domestic law is also a point of contention.

Ahead of her first cabinet meeting before the new parliamentary term, Theresa May is reported to have told aides she is determined her long-term legacy should not be defined only by Brexit.

Damian Green, the first secretary of state and May’s de-facto deputy, told Politico the prime minister wanted to get back to the domestic agenda, given the message sent to the party at the general election.

Green said housing would be central to her agenda, and No 10 has hinted that the public sector pay cap is to be lifted, although the Cabinet Office and the Treasury are understood to disagree over the details of proposals to relax restrictions on pay rises for doctors, teachers and other public sector employees. Cabinet discussions on Tuesday centred on education reform, the prime minister’s spokesman told reporters after the meeting.

“We need an offer for everyone,” Green said. “That’s why the prime minister is very, very keen to ensure we continue to pursue the domestic agenda she set out on the steps of Downing Street when she first became prime minister.

“We must not neglect the domestic agenda, precisely so we’ve got an offer, we can show we are making life better for many groups of people, among whom are young people.”

Green, a close ally of the prime minister, said he fully expected her to fight the next election in 2022. “I think Theresa is doing what is a very difficult job extremely well and I would like to see her continue to do this for many years.”

Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs, said May’s position was “subject to the support of colleagues” but said MPs currently backed her.

Asked if MPs were behind May to lead them into another general election, he told the BBC’s Daily Politics: “If my colleagues are then I am...At the moment we are solidly behind Theresa May.”