Sir Keir Starmer <\/a>is preparing a bill which would hand ministers powers to bring the UK into alignment with EU law, as part of an attempt to reduce paperwork and boost growth<\/a> in Britain. <\/p>\n The bill, which will be brought forward this year as part of the government\u2019s Brexit reset<\/a>, would give ministers overarching powers to bring the UK in line with EU law <\/a>in certain areas, such as food standards, animal welfare and pesticide use \u2013 a process known as dynamic alignment. <\/a><\/p>\n It is understood that the new powers could be used to implement deals struck with the EU, such as agreements to align electricity and carbon markets, or plant and animal standards. <\/p>\n Ministers argue that dynamic alignment would have little material impact as UK food manufacturers have already largely followed EU rules since Brexit<\/a>, but it is hoped that it would reduce expensive and time-consuming paperwork for suppliers who want to export to the single market. <\/a><\/p>\n But there are concerns that it would see the UK surrender control over its own laws. <\/p>\n When the UK was a member of the EU, the government previously had a vote on new laws being passed by Brussels. But now, the UK would need to accept the laws without a vote if it wants to remain in dynamic alignment with the trade bloc. <\/p>\n Both Conservative and Reform UK MPs are expected to oppose the plans, with the Tories accusing the prime minister of \u201csurrendering our freedom\u201d to appease his Labour backbenchers, and trying to \u201cundo\u201d Brexit.<\/p>\n But a Labour source argued that \u201call international agreements involve shared rules\u201d. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are calling for the government to go even further and negotiate a customs union with the EU, accusing the government of having been \u201ctoo timid\u201d in its ambitions for closer ties with Brussels. <\/p>\n While the government has ruled out such a plan, sympathetic Labour MPs could rebel and vote with the Lib Dems. <\/p>\n Sir Keir has recently faced pressure from his own backbenchers to change course on a customs union, with some 13 Labour MPs backing proposals that would pave the way for such an arrangement in a Commons vote last month.<\/p>\n When he became prime minister, Sir Keir promised to reset Britain\u2019s relationship with Brussels and rebuild ties with the bloc after years of tension and mistrust under the Conservatives. <\/p>\n And over the weekend, the prime minister signalled that the government would be prepared to align even more closely with the EU single market if the move is in the national interest. <\/p>\n Sir Keir insisted Britain should \u201cgo further\u201d in strengthening post-Brexit ties with Brussels following a trade deal agreed earlier this year. <\/p>\n But he appeared to pour cold water on suggestions that the UK should rejoin a customs union with the bloc after his health secretary Wes Streeting said the arrangement had \u201cenormous economic benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg over the weekend, Sir Keir pointed to steps already taken to align with the EU more closely on agriculture and food, adding: \u201cThat\u2019s the sovereign decision that we have taken.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we should get closer, and if it\u2019s in our national interest to have even closer alignment with the single market, then we should consider that, we should go that far.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI think it\u2019s in our national interest to go further.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I would say about the customs union is that I argued for a customs union for many years with the EU, but a lot of water has now gone under the bridge.<\/p>\n \u201cI do understand why people are saying, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be better to go to the customs union?\u2019 I actually think that now we\u2019ve done deals with the US which are in our national interest, now we\u2019ve done deals with India which are in our national interest, we are better looking to the single market rather than the customs union for our further alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n The prime minister insisted freedom of movement \u2013 a core principle of the EU single market \u2013 was off the table as he faced questions about what concessions he was willing to offer in return.<\/p>\n A Labour source told The Independent: \u201cThe bill will give us the powers to share rules with the EU. All international agreements involve shared rules. That\u2019s their very nature.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re confident in making the case for specific trade-offs, where it has clear benefits for businesses and consumers. <\/p>\n \u201cKemi has a short memory \u2013 it wasn\u2019t long ago she was making similar arguments, when she U-turned on the Brexit bonfire of EU regulation in the name of pragmatism and what works in the real world.<\/p>\n \u201cYet, the Tories and Reform are keen to protect a broken status quo and want to rip up our deal, all in the name of petty ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-677666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115848177564406811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/EU-BRITAIN-DIPLOMACY-b9bkzsbr.jpeg\")
It is understood that the new powers could be used to implement deals struck with the EU (AFP via Getty)<\/p>\n