UK set to publish Brexit repeal bill

PanARMENIAN.Net - UK prime minister Theresa May will on Thursday, July 13 publish the landmark repeal bill that ends the supremacy of EU law in the UK, the Financial Times reports.

May has called its publication “the biggest Brexit day yet”, but critics have described the bill as a step towards parliamentary “hell”.

The repeal bill is a largely technical measure that copies and pastes EU laws into UK legislation, ensuring legal continuity after Brexit. But pro-European MPs are gearing up to use it as a vehicle to push May towards a “softer” exit.

In an interview on Thursday to mark her first anniversary as prime minister, May told The Sun newspaper that the publication of the bill was “the point at which people see that we mean business”. She said the world wanted the UK to get on with Brexit.

But with a working majority of only 12 in the House of Commons, May faces months of difficulties as she tries to push the repeal bill and seven other major pieces of Brexit legislation through parliament.

The government will also on Thursday publish three position papers ahead of the next round of talks in Brussels, including a paper on how the UK hopes to regulate the nuclear sector once it leaves Euratom, the European regulator. The government will also publish technical documents on judicial and administrative proceedings and privileges and immunities.

The repeal bill will not be debated in parliament until the autumn — summer recess, starts next week — but ministers are braced for trouble.