THERESA May has signalled the start of Brexit by announcing that the Great Repeal Bill will take back laws from the EU.
Getty ReutersWhat is the Great Repeal Bill?
Mrs May has announced that the Government is working on a new Act of Parliament, known as the Great Repeal Bill.
This bill will overturn the 1972 European Communities Act that established the supremacy of EU law over Britain’s own legislation.
The Prime Minister is set to include the bill in the next Queen’s Speech but it will not take effect until Britain actually leaves the EU.
On the day of Brexit, EU laws will be enshrined in British law but the British Government can then change, amend or get rid of unwanted laws.
Over coming decades, MPs are going to go through the laws one by one and decide which ones they want to unpick or bin.
The Great Repeal Bill will also end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK on that day Brexit happens.
Why is the Great Repeal Bill so important?
Brexit campaigner and International Development Secretary Priti Patel said the 1972 Act had “basically meant that our laws and regulations were determined by the European Union”.
“We are going to repeal the legislation - the European Communities Act - which of course took us into the membership of the European Union,” she told Sky News.
“We will keep the laws that currently exist and start working across every single Government department.. to see where we need to make the changes on outdated regulations and things that simply do not work in our national interest."
She added: “We are going to give Parliament its sovereignty back.
"We are going to be making sure we are in control of British laws in a way that we simply have not been due to our membership of the European Union.”
GettyWhat happens next?
Ms Patel noted that the Department for Exiting the European Union was already starting to look at EU laws brought in over the past 44 years.
The new bill will next be debated and voted on by the House of Commons and the House of Lords. There is a risk that the bill could be blocked by pro-EU MPs.
Another leading Brexiteer and Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith said that the Great Repeal Bill will go through Parliament at the same time as EU exit talks happen.
Mr Duncan Smith said: “We will run this in parallel. At the moment, at the day as and when we leave that becomes law."
Mrs May has now signalled that Article 50 will be triggered by the end of March 2017 - starting the timer on two years of exit talks with the EU.
In principle, Britain will leave the EU and the Great Repeal Bill will enter into force by the end of March 2019.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/716731/Great-Repeal-Bill-what-is-act-Brexit-Britain-take-back-laws-1972-European-Communities-Act?
