Sunak is ‘squandering Brexit freedoms’ by approving more EU rules

[dutchman]

Move could lead to companies being sued for unlimited damages, Tory MPs have warned



Rishi Sunak has been accused of squandering Brexit freedoms after quietly introducing sweeping EU equality rules into British law.

New regulations, driven through Parliament without fanfare, “gold-plate” judgments by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and create a “carte blanche” for companies to be sued for “unlimited damages”, Conservative MPs have warned.

The changes amount to a significant expansion of New Labour’s Equality Act, which Mr Sunak once claimed had “allowed every kind of woke nonsense to permeate public life” and “must stop”.

Ministers say the changes brought “necessary protections” from EU case law into domestic law, before ECJ judgments ceased to apply in Britain this year following Britain’s exit from the EU.

But Tory MPs have criticised the Government for adopting the measure and say it goes further than some ECJ rulings.

Lawyers believe the laws could, for example, allow workers who care for disabled family members to sue firms for “indirect discrimination” on grounds of disability if they are barred from working from home.

The new laws took effect last month, four years after Brexit, without any debate in the Commons or Lords chambers. No announcement was made to the media.

The changes provoked a furious response from leading Brexiteers including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Sir Bill Cash, Sir John Hayes and Martin Howe KC, who has advised the European Research Group. Sir Jacob, Sir Bill and Sir John all refused to vote in favour of the regulations.

Sir Jacob said: “Not only people who voted for Brexit, but people who didn’t, would think that implementing ECJ judgments in any form is simply weird. We have left the EU.”

He added: “I cannot understand why the Government wishes to put more burdens on businesses and add to the Equality Act’s damage to our economic vibrancy.”

Sir John said: “It’s not good enough for a Conservative government to let the ratchet move further on. The vote for Brexit was in some sense a cry for help from the law-abiding, patriotic, hard-working majority. They are desperate for more conservatism, not less.”

Sir Bill added: “This was done, in my opinion, by virtue of extremely bad advice. Nobody seems to have quite grasped how important these issues are.”

Mr Howe questioned why ministers were “behaving as if we are under an obligation to follow these judgments as part of our law when we are under absolutely no obligation to do so”.

Addressing MPs before voting against the legislation, Miriam Cates, a prominent Conservative MP, said it would “undermine our understanding of discrimination rather than to strengthen it ... by gold-plating an obscure piece of foreign case law that essentially allows someone without a protected characteristic to piggyback off someone who does”.

It could create “almost a carte blanche for individuals to bring indirect discrimination cases on almost any grounds and with unlimited potential damages”, she added.

[rebbonk]

If our vote ever counted, we wouldn't be allowed it!

Sunak is proving to be every bit as unreliable and duplicitous, not to mention self-serving, as his recent predecessors. May he, and the rest of his party, be wiped off the face of this earth come the next General Election. In saying that, I truly detest Starmer and don't trust him one iota.

[dutchman]

Sunak intends to rejoin the EU at the first opportunity. He proved that by appointing Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron as cabinet ministers.

It's debatable whether Britain ever really left.

[rebbonk]

It's debatable whether Britain ever really left.

[dutchman]

VAT threshold for UK businesses limited by EU rules, Hunt admits privately



Jeremy Hunt has privately admitted to colleagues that he cannot further raise the VAT threshold for UK businesses because of EU rules.

The chancellor announced in his budget on Wednesday that businesses would no longer have to pay VAT if they had a turnover of less than £90,000, an increase from the previous threshold of £85,000.

Hunt told multiple MPs ahead of the budget that £90,000 was the highest he could raise the threshold because of the Northern Ireland protocol agreed with the EU.

The disclosure has angered Tory Brexiters who are critical of the protocol, which set Northern Ireland’s relationship with Britain and the EU after Brexit.

Conservative MPs and small business groups have been campaigning for the VAT threshold for UK businesses to increase significantly. The New Conservatives, a group of rightwing Tory MPs, had called for it to be raised to £250,000. The Federation of Small Businesses has called for an increase to £100,000.

But Hunt has privately told colleagues that, because of the protocol, raising the threshold above £90,000 would only be possible in Great Britain, creating a different VAT regime for Northern Ireland. A Treasury source said the chancellor did not want there to be different VAT rules in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, told the Guardian: “It is ridiculous that our VAT policy is still decided in Brussels, especially as the threshold level is so economically important. It deters small businesses from growing and adding employees as they suddenly become 20% less competitive.”

David Jones, deputy chair of the Brexit-backing Conservative caucus the European Research Group, said it was a “great shame because the VAT threshold is too low, it’s dissuading people from setting up a business or expanding their existing businesses”.

He added: “The £5,000 increase is welcome but really colleagues were talking in terms of doubling the threshold. If it can’t be done because of the arrangements with the EU, then really the government ought to go back and start talking to the EU about it.”

The Treasury said raising the VAT threshold to £90,000 would take 28,000 small businesses across the UK out of paying the tax. The change takes effect from 1 April and is the first increase in seven years.

Under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol and the Windsor framework negotiated by Rishi Sunak, the UK must respect the EU’s €100,000 VAT threshold when setting VAT rules in Northern Ireland. This is so that businesses in Northern Ireland do not have a tax advantage over EU businesses, ensuring a “level playing field”.

[dutchman]

UK and EU ‘within kissing distance’ of post-Brexit Gibraltar border deal



The UK and the EU are within “kissing distance” of a post-Brexit deal to guarantee free movement over the border between Gibraltar and Spain, Gibraltar’s chief minister has said.

After a meeting between the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, agreement was reached on issues that have dogged negotiations for the past five years.

It includes an outline pact on having an EU presence at the airport in Gibraltar to ensure the regulation of people and goods coming into the EU.

Lord Cameron left Brussels after the meeting without speaking to reporters, but Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, and Albares said the meeting had been positive and constructive.

Asked how close they were to a treaty, Picardo said: “We are very, very, very close. In English we say within spitting distance but actually it is nice to say we are within kissing distance.”

And we all know which part of Picardo's anatomy Cameron was kissing!