Is the government retreating from its post-Brexit bonfire of rights?

Rishi Sunak has started to retreat from plans to push forward the potentially disastrous Retained EU Law bill, one report has claimed.

If passed, the bill would see over 4,000 EU laws, which were kept in the UK statute book after the UK’s departure from the European Union to ensure continuity, scrapped by the end of this year. Any exceptions would have to be approved by ministers.

But, the Observer reported over the weekend, the government is to ditch plans to hold the report stage of the bill in the House of Lords in the next few weeks, with no new dates announced.

Such a climbdown would anger hardline Brexiteers, including the bill’s champion Jacob Rees-Mogg and the European Research Group (ERG).

This rumoured delay is aimed at preventing a row that could derail the Tory campaign for the local elections taking place on May 4, and would allow time to draw up a list of prospective concessions to rebels, claimed the Observer.

Earlier this year, a cross-party group of MPs sought to rein in the powers of the bill, including Labour’s Stella Creasy and the Conservative former Brexit secretary David Davis. Creasy introduced an amendment to the bill which would give MPs, rather than ministers, the power to decide which laws are retained. It also demands that the government must “publish a list of all legislation being revoked under this section and lay a copy before Parliament”.

“There has been concern about the way that the government is using Brexit as political cover to transfer power over thousands of areas of vital regulation from Parliament to Ministers from across Parliament – whether Labour, Tory, Leaver or Remainer, Lord or MP, we all agree it’s a terrible piece of legislation,” Creasy told The New European.

She added: “Ministers have blindly pushed ahead for almost a year now motivated by nothing more than a desire to condemn anything related to Europe on principle, whatever the costs to businesses, consumers, or even the chances of peace in Northern Ireland.”

“We will continue to push back and work with anyone who agrees the government should drop this bill and come forward with something sensible when it comes to retained law.”

A government spokesperson denied that progress was being delayed, insisting it was still “fully committed” to the bill.