{"id":785723,"date":"2026-02-24T11:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/785723\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:39:13","slug":"britains-is-still-a-hostage-to-brussels-following-brexit-betrayal-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/785723\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s is ‘still a hostage’ to Brussels following Brexit betrayal | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"State<\/p>\n

Britain has retained much EU era red tape under successive prime ministers (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

A major new report lays bare how little the UK has made use of Brexit<\/a> freedoms to break free from European Union<\/a> rules and regulations. With the UK preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of the historic 2016 referendum to leave the EU, a respected think tank concludes the \u201cUK has done little to diverge\u201d. Britain under Labour<\/a> now looks set for a future in which it will be \u201ccleaving closer<\/a> to the EU\u2019s rulebook,\u201d according to a detailed analysis by UK In A Changing Europe.<\/p>\n

It also warns sounds the alarm that \u201cMPs will have very little power to scrutinise EU legislation being adopted, or to influence where the government chooses to align\u201d. Its new report states it \u201cseems likely that Government will try to implement as much alignment as possible via secondary legislation \u2013 to expedite processes and minimise parliamentary oversight\u201d. It claims: \u201cPost-Brexit<\/a> control of lawmaking is being centralised not in Parliament, but in the hands of the executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Reform UK spokesman responded to the findings, saying: \u201cLabour is continuing to silently unpick Brexit and betray the votes of 17.4 million people. We have a cabinet of Remainers who refuse to accept the will of the public and are driving us ever closer to the bloc Britain voted to free itself from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong> Keir Starmer savaged over ‘disingenuous’ Brexit betrayal <\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong> Labour accused of never accepting Brexit loss and flirting with backdoor return <\/a><\/p>\n

In December 2020, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson<\/a> boasted: \u201cWe have taken back control of laws and our destiny. We have taken back control of every jot and tittle of our regulation in a way that is complete and unfettered.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in January Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> stated: \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. I think it’s in our national interest to go further.”<\/p>\n

Veteran Brexiteer John Longworth, chairman of the Independent Business Network and a former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: \u201cIt is to the shame of Parliament and our political leaders that they have wilfully avoided divergence from the EU, the very thing that would give us the economic super-growth that Britain needs to pay for all the things we want. Now the Labour government is trying to push us back into the EU as a rules-taker which will kill any opportunity for growth before we have even tried significant divergence.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Campbell Bannerman, chairman of the Freedom Association, said: \u201cThis report confirms Britain has failed so far to grasp all the opportunities of Brexit and being a sovereign nation again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that while the \u201cUK is more enlightened on AI, trade deals and the City\u2019s financial services than the EU\u201d there are \u201cso many other sectors that could benefit from such freedoms\u201d.<\/p>\n

He compared Labour to hostages who have formed a bond with their captors, saying it is \u201csuffering from Stockholm Syndrome \u2013 they are trying to reenter the EU cell and to put back on the EU\u2019s chains. They are going 180 degrees in the wrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Ursula<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer has described his desire for closer alignment (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The report concludes: \u201cIf one clear conclusion can be drawn, it is that the UK\u2019s relationship with the EU is far from settled \u2013 and nor is it likely to be any time soon. It took Switzerland half a century to reach the model of relationship which is today looked upon with such envy by many in the Labour party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examining why EU-era red tape has not been slashed, it states: \u201cVoters demonstrate little appetite for lower labour, social or environmental protections. The revealed preference of successive governments has been to strengthen regulation in those areas when given the chance \u2013 for instance banning single-use vapes, setting a 2030 phase-out date for petrol and diesel cars, and introducing stronger rights for trade unions and zero-hour contract workers. It has taken Brexit it to show us how European our regulatory instincts are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing how the UK has retreated from radical divergence from the EU, it says: \u201cOn tech, early plans to radically reform data protection rules (GDPR) were dropped, while the UK has developed new rules on digital markets and online safety which greatly resemble EU acts introduced a couple of years earlier. On environmental, product and labour standards, EU-era legislation has barely been reformed, even though rules on habitats protections, vacuum power levels and working hours were major targets for Brexiters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK Government has been invited to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain has retained much EU era red tape under successive prime ministers (Image: Getty) A major new report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[5109,802,5322,748,11330,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,528,228905,16,25847,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-785723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-boris-johnson","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-brexit-news","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-brussels","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-keir-starmer","19":"tag-labour-party","20":"tag-regulatory-alignment","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-uk-eu-relations","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116125422732432316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785723","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=785723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}