Tide of EU laws set to ‘flow over UK’ after King’s Speech, Lord Frost says

Harry Taylor, Press Association Political Staff

An “incoming tide” of European Union law is set to flow over the UK, the country’s former chief Brexit negotiator has said, as Conservative peers warned the Government against closer ties with the EU.

Lord David Frost joined Tory eurosceptic former cabinet ministers in telling Labour the Prime Minister was wrong to look to strike new deals with the EU that could see the UK accepting new laws or standards.

It comes after the King’s Speech, which was announced yesterday in the House of Lords, included a European Partnership Bill.

It could allow the fast-tracking of EU rules into law without giving MPs a vote.

It comes as the Government is hoping to agree new aligned standards on food, energy emissions and youth mobility with Brussels.

Lord Frost, who served in Boris Johnson’s government, said the plans were not in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto.

He said: “The dams of the red lines are long since broken. The incoming tide of EU law is once again flowing up the estuaries and up the rivers of this country’s independence.”

He said the Bill should be called the “European Subordination Bill”, and said: “It’s going to deprive this Parliament of any say in areas where the Government has agreed to accept EU law and dynamic alignment.”

Lord Frost said Sir Keir Starmer’s aim to put the UK “at the heart of Europe” was misplaced as the UK did not have the same aims as continental EU countries.

Sir Keir referenced a youth mobility scheme on Monday as he attempted to save his premiership after poor election results last week.

He said he wanted to put Britain in a central role within Europe.

Sir Keir said: “Standing shoulder to shoulder with the countries that most share our interests, our values, and our enemies, that is the right choice for Britain. That is the Labour choice.”

The Government has been working on a food and drink safety agreement.

A youth mobility scheme has been mooted, to allow young people to travel, study and work in Europe more easily.

A new food and drink deal could provide a benefit of £5.1 billion to the UK economy, officials believe.

Labour has also spoken more in recent months about the economic impact of Brexit.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told an International Monetary Fund meeting last year that productivity in the UK had suffered because of it.

The Office for Budget responsibility has said the post-Brexit trading deal will reduce long-term productivity by 4%.

In a report last July it said imports and exports with the EU would be about 15% lower than if Brexit had not happened.

Cabinet Office minister Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent told the debate on the King’s Speech: “We are continuing our work to secure a closer and more stable relationship with our largest trading partner, the EU.”

Lady Anderson said Parliament would have its say on any new laws before they are applied in the UK.

She said: “Our collective goal is and must be to deliver real, tangible benefits for people and businesses in the UK.”

Labour peer Lord Liddle, a former adviser to Tony Blair on European matters, and former president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said closer ties with Europe were a “precondition of restoring broad based economic growth”.

He said: “As we approach the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, we need to ask ourselves, what benefits positively have been realised?

“I’m not aware of any respectable economic analysis that demonstrates positive benefits.”

He added: “I think we have a lot of common interests in joint EU-UK cooperation.

“Interest in defence procurement, in a joint approach to the regulation of artificial intelligence, in trade, in technology where we have so much to offer.”

However successive Tory peers said the economic damage from Brexit was overstated.

Lord Redwood, a Conservative former cabinet minister in the 1990s was a thorn in the side for John Major over Europe, said claims by Labour that Brexit had damaged economic growth were wrong.

He said the figure was misleading, and told peers: “Ministers here and elsewhere tell us that we suffered 4% GDP loss as a result of Brexit.

“Now, if you look at all the graphs and charts of what happened to GDP, from 2016 to today for the leading European countries and ourselves, there is absolutely no sign on those graphs of an extra 4% drop as a result of us either voting to leave or actually leaving.”

Former welfare secretary Lord Lilley said he had wrongly believed joining the single market in 1993 would yield economic benefits.

Lord Lilley, who had previously been trade secretary in the early 1990s, said: “Throughout our more than a quarter than a century of membership of the single market, our exports of goods to our founding fellow partners of the single market had stagnated.

“They grew at less than 1% a year for 28 years.”

He added: “The single market magic, whatever it is, failed for Britain.

“Why don’t the Government recognise it? Why do they still believe… that the single market will magically boost our exports?”

Lord Frost said: “The truth is that our growth pattern has not changed compared to our European comparators.

“However you cut the figures, Brexit doesn’t show up.”