Category Archives: Brexit

The UK Government has published a policy paper entitled Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy (10 May 2023) that outlines a series of upcoming employment related regulatory reforms designed, in part, to take advantage of the UKs post-Brexit regulatory freedom. The stated aim is to reduce unnecessary regulation for businesses to ensure economic growth whilst maintaining existing UK labour standards.

What are the proposed changes?

There is no timeframe for this change to come into effect and, until the legislation is papered, the specific scope of this cap is yet unknown. For example, it is not yet known how this may impact non-competes in arrangements contained outside of the employment contract but that are related to employment (e.g. within incentive agreements). Whilst currently employers will still be able to include longer non-competes in employment contracts for now, in light of the proposed change, greater consideration should be given to notice periods, garden leave provisions, the use of non-solicitation and non-poaching provisions, and the wider set of protections available to employers when drafting and negotiating contracts of employment.

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Post-Brexit UK Employment Reform: Three month cap on non ... - JD Supra

Manchester is desperate for workers. There are 40,000 jobs advertised in the city at the moment, at every pay grade. Ann Summers wants a stockroom assistant (10.70 an hour), or you could invigilate exams at 14 an hour or post videos on TikTok for 20 an hour. Sellcheck Chemicals is offering up to 75,000 a year for a sales manager (No biology background needed, no previous experience necessary). Even the army is offering trainee officers 34,000 after their first year. But ask any employer in the city what its like hiring and theyll tell you: its a battle.

Whats strange about this is the fact that though all these jobs are on offer, unemployed Mancunians dont seem to want them. Figures published last week show that 18 per cent of Manchesters adults are claiming out-of-work benefits. Some 120,000 have reported as long-term sick. Welfare dysfunction has created a huge hole in the workforce.

The net migration figure released next week is expected to come in at above 700,000 a year

Its the same story in city after city. Somehow, the UK has managed to combine mass joblessness with a worker shortage. Almost one in five working-age people in Birmingham are on out-of-work benefits, and its the same story in Glasgow and Liverpool. In Blackpool, the number is closer to one in four. This is a huge waste of lives, leaving aside the issue of taxpayers money.

Though Rishi Sunak promises welfare reform, its not clear how he intends to deal with a problem of this size. His officials have warned him that things are set to get much worse. There are 5,000 claims per day for sickness benefits, many on the grounds of poor mental health almost twice thepre-pandemic rate. No one expects that rate to start slowing. Internal government forecasts now envisage the welfare caseload rising for five years, with the number on disability benefits surging by a third to 3.7 million. The Prime Ministers officials are admitting that we wont escape this trap any time soon.

So who will fill the million-plus vacancies? How can we grow the economy? The answer to this question will become clear next week, when figures are released showing that mass immigration is back on a scale that would have been unimaginable not so long ago. And rather than treating it as a problem, Sunaks government seems to regard it as a solution to Britains missing workers.

During the Brexit campaign, much fuss was made of the news that immigration had hit 323,000 a year, making a mockery of David Camerons promise to reduce it to the tens of thousands. Brexiteers and Remainers alike assumed the whole point of leaving the EU and ending free movement was to reduce arrivals. The consensus was that about 130,000 a year was right. We now take that amount of people roughly every ten weeks. The net migration figure released next week is expected to come in at above 700,000 a year: by far the largest in the history of our islands.

While its true that next weeks numbers will be inflated by refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong, and by students (many of whom arrive with dependants in tow), the underlying trend is clear. The Office for Budget Responsibility has abandoned any idea that Brexit meant cutting back immigration, because there is no evidence that anyone in government is remotely serious about doing so. It now forecasts, long-term, around 250,000 arrivals a year almost twice the post-Brexit projections. A second great wave of migration has begun.

How to address the problems that mass migration brings, without seeming to have betrayed Brexit?

While the first wave of mass immigration in recent decades was an unforeseen consequence of expanding the European Union, this one is planned. The Tories have taken back control and used it to ramp up immigration to a level that New Labour would never have dared attempt.

Its often said that the United Kingdom is an immigrant country. This is not quite true. Until the mid-1980s, we were a net exporter of human beings. In 1948, parliament passed a law giving all 800 million citizens of the Commonwealth the right to live and work in Britain, the assumption being that hardly anyone would want to come to these rain-battered islands. Waves of migration made the news, but they barely dented the demographics. When more people started to arrive in the 1990s, the numbers were modest. So the EUs borderless future was designed at a time when no one imagined the level of mass migration to come, because it had never happened before. Tony Blair had no idea that he was about to preside over a new economic model. He didnt plan for it, because he just didnt see it coming.

The problems are becoming obvious. The mass movement of migrants meant that employers preferred cheaper, foreign-born workers over investing in training locals. The consequent increased pressure on housing, schools and hospitals are what led, in part, to the Brexit vote. People wanted their politicians to make a better job of managing globalisation.

Boris Johnson talked about controlling migration to force companies to pay decent salaries: if that meant higher prices, so be it. He saw the national shortage of truck drivers as a wake-up call: such people should be valued and paid properly. This wasnt just Brexiteer bravado. Sir Stuart Rose, the ex-M&S chairman and a Remain campaign chief, argued the same: the end of free movement would push up wages for low-skilled workers, he said though he thought this was not necessarily a good thing. Both sides agreed Brexit would mean lower migration and higher salaries. Not many would make that case now. Rather than rising, real-term incomes are midway through their sharpest fall since postwar records began.

A milestone was passed this week when it emerged that 20 per cent of the UK workforce is foreign-born making us more of an immigrant country than even the United States. Brexit has brought in a different mix of migrants. India has supplanted Poland as the biggest source country for new workers: followed by the Philippines, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Australia and the United States. Interestingly, post-Covid sickness and mental health issues havent seemed to afflict Britains immigrant community in the same way as they have its natives.

But while the US regards itself proudly as an immigration nation, our Prime Ministers strategy is to act as if nothing is happening. There is no Statue of Liberty at Victoria Coach Station in London, though a quarter of all UK schoolchildren have an immigrant mother. In London its just over half.

Brexit Britain can claim to be one of the most welcoming countries in the world with a work visa approval rate of about 96 per cent. Its almost 100 per cent for Americans (12,382 applied and just 47 were refused). Non-EU citizens are no longer treated as second class: in fact someone from Kyrgyzstan is more likely to get a work visa than someone from Germany. Before Brexit, just seven people from Tajikistan were granted visas a year. Now, its about seven a day. Visas for people from India have doubled since the Brexit vote. Zimbabwe is up 20-fold, Uzbekistan 100-fold.

Britain is now the country where workers of the world unite. So far, all this is being done with success and harmony that would astonish the rest of the world. There is virtually no anti-migrant backlash: indeed, a recent poll showed Britain to be one of the most pro-immigrant countries in the world. Were also about the only country in Europe not to have a serious anti-immigrant populist party in parliament or with any significant showing in the opinion polls. Concern about migration is far lower than it was pre-Brexit, even if the numbers are higher, which is in part because the government has taken control of who arrives.

To enter Britain there is a list of conditions: you need to be an English speaker with a sponsor, a job offer and a minimum salary, and in an approved profession. Perhaps this has made the influx less controversial its immigration but with greater democratic consent. But its also easy to see how this could begin to sour. We still need many more workers and they will all keep coming. There will be ever more pressure on hospitals and schools. This is the problem Sunak faces now. How to address the problems that mass migration brings, without seeming to have betrayed Brexit?

Perhaps every new worker is vital to the economy but the fact remains that the government is issuing visas equivalent to a city the size of Southampton every year and there are certainly no plans to build a new Southampton every year. He needs to ask: where will the newcomers live? Who will build their houses, teach their children, tend to their sick? To dodge these questions, to pretend its not all happening, guarantees big problems in the future.

Being honest about mass migration also means being honest about the trajectory of British welfare. Yes, Sunak would like reform. But if his own officials are predicting a massive increase in mental health caseloads, on the assumption that the problem is going to get far worse, then its time to talk about this too. Why do we think a million more people are going to end up on disability benefits? Why in Britain, not anywhere else? The reason this question is so difficult to discuss is that tough-love welfare reform is fraught with political danger. No politician wants to be accused of being heartless.

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Politically, its easier to write the cheque and forget about the long-term sick. Its astonishingly easy to do so. When figures were released this week showing 5.3 million on out-of-work benefits, up from 5.2 million already a staggering figure it was given no coverage at all. Its amazing how recategorisation of benefits can make millions disappear: politically, at least.

Sunak embodies the quiet success of British integration, but theres a risk in getting too carried away. The industrious Zimbabwean and Australian immigrants can hardly be blamed for welfare dysfunction. But if they are being used to cover it up, then its worth discussing.

Is it possible to give up on welfare reform and use mass immigration to build post-Brexit Britain? Absolutely. Is it desirable? Thats another question. And its one the Prime Minister should really get around to answering before too long.

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Migration nation: Brexit has meant more immigration than ever - The Spectator

Dive Brief:

England, Scotland and Wales, collectively known as Great Britain, never adopted the European Unions Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) because its delayed date of application happened after the end of the Brexit transition period. Northern Ireland, which along with Great Britain makes up the United Kingdom, is subject to MDR under the terms of the Brexit deal.

As such, Great Britain needs its own regulatory regime for medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs). The government outlined its plans last year, at which time it was targeting a 2023 implementation date for the new regulations. Last year, officials extended the transitional arrangements out to July 2024.

The new plan gives the industry even more time to adapt. Officials are now aiming for core aspects of the future regime for medical devices to apply from July 1, 2025. Manufacturers will still be able to sell CE-marked devices in Great Britain for years after that date.

Under legislation that the government plans to introduce soon, CE-marked general medical devices that comply with the outgoing EU directives can be sold in Great Britain until June 30, 2028. The transition period for IVDs placed on the market under the outgoing directive, and for all medical devices that comply with MDR, will end on June 30,2030.

The transition period applies to CE marks granted before Great Britain fully establishes its own medtech regulatory regime in July 2025, according to a statement issued by the Medicines & Healthcare productsRegulatory Agency.

Manufacturers with CE marks that expire after that date will need to get certified under the new Great Britain system. The agency said it plans to adopt new, stronger postmarketing requirements in mid-2024.

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Great Britain proposes allowing CE marks until 2030 to minimize ... - MedTech Dive

Food inflation in the UK is running at 19.1% a year, the highest level in 45 years. The average family is having to find a fifth more to feed themselves every week, compared with the same time last year. It is a huge burden on people and especially the poor, who spend a much higher proportion of their incomes on essentials.

The first thing to say is that although Britain currently has western Europes worst overall inflation rate (10.1%, compared with 7.8% in Germany, 6.6% in France and a tiny 3.1% in Spain), it is far from the only country with food inflation problems. Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands all have lower food inflation rates, but our 19.1% is actually 0.1% better than the EU average. However, that average is distorted by Hungarys rate of 44.5% and high rates among many of its closest neighbours, who are also suffering from their proximity to the war in Ukraine, but do not have the added drag of a chaotic government run by the despotic Viktor Orbn.

But Britain has its own Orbn factor something that is helping to make our inflation worse than the rest of Europes and our food inflation higher than it should be.

We all know that Brexit has added to the burden. It has disrupted supply, undermined the road haulage industry, and added piles of expensive red tape to every lorry load of food that crosses the border into the UK, pushing up prices by 6%. That is on top of the massive increase in energy, commodity and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine and helps explain why UK inflation, and especially food inflation, is so high.

But now Brexit has another gift for the hard-pressed and the desperate because Brexit is not finished. The government may have forgotten to remind you, but it has stopped checking the quality, safety and origins of the food that enters the UK; it just wasnt ready for Brexit and so, unlike the EU, it has just been waving through thousands of trucks a day without checking them. It has delayed introducing those tests four times, because it failed to plan for Brexit and because it knows it will hike food prices in the UK again.

We know this because last year the minister for Brexit opportunities at the time, Jacob Rees-Mogg, travelled to Dover to delay their introduction once again. He said that introducing the checks would have been an act of self-harm because they would have cost 1bn a year and increased peoples food bills. But what wasnt so widely reported is that he went on to say that for some costs it would be quite significant If you look at small deliveries like cheese, you are talking about a 71% increase maximum level on the retail price and frankly at that level the goods would just not have come in. Well, I couldnt have put it better myself massive hikes in prices and many foods not even making it into the UK.

But the checks will have to be introduced sometime. Food safety organisations, vets, retailers and food manufacturers know full well that the UK is playing Russian roulette over this issue. No checks mean that a repeat of the horsemeat scandal, or another foot and mouth outbreak are increasingly likely, and the farming industry is terrified of what might happen.

Meanwhile, food safety and standards are under threat. With no checks the UK is the go-to destination for every dodgy dealer trying to offload rotten meat, infected eggs, counterfeit cheese, adulterated olive oil and stinking fish.

At the time of the last delay, Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union, said: It is astounding that the government is taking such an unacceptable approach to critical checks for agri-food imports from the EU.

These checks are absolutely crucial to the nations biosecurity, animal health and food safety and without them we really do leave ourselves at risk.

Not only that but since British food exporters face all the correct and necessary checks when selling into the EU, the industry is at a huge disadvantage. It is being undercut by EU rivals who sail through the border.

But the ex-minister is now hardening his position. When grilled on this very subject of border checks on his own TV show, Rees-Mogg said this week: I stopped them. There is no reason to bring them in. They should be stopped again. If the government wishes to put those controls on, that is the act of a democratic government. Do I think they are foolish? Yes, I do. That is why I succeeded in stopping them last year.

Which just reeks of desperation. He stopped them because they would have increased food inflation even more, and they will do that again but without them the whole food sector is under threat. It is inevitable that they will be introduced. Shane Brennan of the Cold Chain Federation told the New European earlier this year that when these new controls were expected to be introduced last year: We were clear at that time that this would have collapsed a significant part of the food supply chain into the UK.

Now Brennan has written an explanation of just how messy it is going to be for Britain in a changing Europe. Take a producer of buffalo mozzarella in Italy. As of October 31 they will for the first time possibly ever have to: learn the new UK rules; find a vet to certify goods on site, at a cost of 200 to 700 a time; find a specialist haulier; employ an agent to ensure the data gets onto the UKs food import IT system, alongside customs declarations, at maybe 50 to 200 a time; and pay a new border inspection charge of up to 43 on every consignment.

These new rules will add billions to food import costs and many small EU exporters will decide it is not worth selling in the UK. We know this because a third of British exporters stopped exporting when the EU introduced the exact same checks in 2021. The UK imports 30% of its food from the EU; serious shortages will start very quickly if the system collapses.

All of this will happen just as food inflation should be improving, as the huge price rises we have seen in recent months drop out of the calculations. No other country will be introducing new expensive self-imposed border controls and checks, meaning that food inflation is likely to fall faster and further elsewhere.

In short, someone is going to have to pay for this mess, and it will be you every time you go to the shops.

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Britain, the Brexit basket case - The New European

The Scottish Tories cannot be trusted on rural affairs issues as long as they fail to recognise the impact of Brexit on the sector, an SNP MSP has said.

Jim Fairlie, who was a prominent backer of Kate Forbes during the recent SNP leadership contest, attacked the Scottish Conservatives over their shameful betrayal of Scottish farmers.

At the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow, party leader Douglas Ross announced a members bill from Rachael Hamilton MSP which would seek to better protect farm equipment from theft, and said his party would introduce a rural development bank to help boost local rural economies.

The party also plans to propose ring-fencing funding from the rural affairs and islands budget to support farmers and crofters and introducing a version of the UK Governments controversial Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding Bill).

However, Mr Fairlie said Brexit had been an unmitigated disaster for Scotlands farmers due to the lack of a equal replacement for EU subsidies, the impact of Brexit on immigration, and allowing cheap imports of lesser quality meat from other countries.

This, he said, demonstrated the party could not be trusted to stand up for Scottish farmers and crofters.

The MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire said: Amidst all of this, theyve chosen to short-changed Scotlands farmers and crofters by failing to provide our food producers with any additional help to meet inflationary pressures, including energy costs.

The deafening silence from the Scottish Tories on the impact of Brexit is nothing short of a shameful betrayal of Scotlands farmers.

Ms Hamilton responded: Jim Fairlie should look closer to home when it comes to failing our farmers and crofters. The SNP are continuing to dither and delay over what future support for the agriculture sector will look like and they have let down our rural communities constantly during their 16 years in power.

SNP MSPs would prefer to pick fights with the UK Government rather than giving the green light to gene editing technology, which would help keep food prices affordable and assist farmers in making a living.

The Scottish Conservatives recently produced policy paper on Scotlands food future will help to meet our ambitious net zero targets, with detailed plans to support more products being grown locally, which will be better for our environment.

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SNP MSP attacks 'deafening silence' of Tories on Brexit who fail to ... - The Scotsman

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Britain's 'Brexit capital' shows signs of disillusionment with Tories - Financial Times

Consumer affairs

Experts say it is vital to check you meet EU requirements, or you could risk losing your holiday

Sat 29 Apr 2023 02.00 EDT

Travellers who have not used their passport for a while were this week being urged to dig it out and check it conforms to the post-Brexit rules for entering the EU because if it doesnt, you will almost certainly be denied boarding this summer.

Despite previous warnings in Guardian Money and some other publicity, UK travellers trying to enter the Schengen zone are being turned away on a daily basis by airline staff at boarding gates in most cases because their UK passport was issued more than 10 years ago.

Rosi Simpson, a teacher from Brighton, is one of the latest to be caught up in the confusion. She says she was left mortified and in tears after easyJet staff refused to allow her to board a flight to Paris to see her son, who is studying there, because her UK passport had been issued 10 years and one day previously.

I had no idea of the 10-year rule, she says. Id checked the expiry date, and my passport had eight months remaining. What happened at the boarding gate was absolutely awful. I lost the cost of the flight and the accommodation Id booked Id been so looking forward to seeing my son. What I dont understand is why this [rule change] hasnt had more publicity an information campaign. I wasnt the only one who this had happened to at the airport that day, she says.

In terms of flights and ferries to mainland Europe, passengers will also be denied boarding if their passport expires less than three months after their return date. Previously, it was thought that UK travellers needed at least six months left, although the EU has since clarified the three-month requirement.

Prior to Brexit, UK passport holders could travel in and out of the EU as long as they held a valid passport, even one that expired the day after their return.

The more onerous rules, which came into effect in 2021, apply to UK passport holders travelling to any EU country (except Ireland), plus the others in the Schengen zone: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican and Switzerland.

The over 10-year problem came about because, for many years, those renewing their passport before the previous one expired were able to add any remaining time left. Prior to September 2018, you could have up to nine months added to the replacements 10-year length meaning their passport could be valid for as long as 10 years and nine months.

Passengers may look at their passport, see that it does not expire until well after their return, and conclude that all is well. However, they need to check the date of issue. If the passport will be more than 10 years old on the day of entry, they will not be allowed in.

The change has caught out a great many passengers who were unaware of the change. Last year, Guardian Money featured the case of Pat Cerely and her husband, Peter, who were refused permission to board their plane to Madeira on the grounds that Pats passport was not valid even though it had another nine months remaining.

Every day, others are falling foul of the rule and if it happens to you, it can be a financial disaster. Travel insurers will not pay out for a lost holiday if you tried to travel with an invalid passport.

Jo Rhodes, the deputy travel editor at Which?, says: Recently, some travellers have been caught out by EU passport rules, meaning they havent been able to go on holiday as planned.

Your passport must have been issued in the past 10 years at the time of entering the EU. Legally, youre also required to have at least three months left on your passport at the time you plan on exiting the EU. If you have a holiday planned this summer, check your passport now to make sure it meets all the requirements for your destination, so you dont risk being turned away at the airport.

She says Which? advises travelling with at least six months validity to be on the safe side.

She adds: Despite the legal requirement being three months, UK travellers are strongly advised by the European Commission and the UK government to have no less than six months on the end of their passports. This is because some border guards believe that people tend to stay in the EU for longer than they say and so theyre reluctant to grant you entry if you have less than six months.

Countries such as Romania, which is in Europe but outside the Schengen zone, stipulate that UK passport holders are required to have at least six months on their passports to enter the country. It is by no means alone.

To add extra excitement to the story, Passport Office workers, who process applications, are approaching the end of a five-week strike. It is thought that up to a quarter of the agencys 4,000 employees are not in work as normal.

However, while the Passport Office says users should currently allow 10 weeks for their application to be processed, most applications are being sorted out a lot more quickly than that. The 10-week advice includes every kind of application, including those for new passports or where the renewal requires a change of name after a marriage or similar.

If you have a straightforward renewal of an existing passport and your details are all the same name and address and so on then people are reporting getting their replacements in days rather than weeks.

The most recent postings on the Passportwaitingtime.co.uk website which tells you how long it is likely to take to get your UK passport suggested that simple adult renewals were being processed in an average of 12 days, and often more quickly than that. Adult first passport applications were typically being processed in 17 days (29 days with an interview) while one-week fast-track applications were being dealt with in 5.7 days, it said this week.

Guardian Money has heard similar reports. The online process is the quickest and cheapest way to apply.

A Passport Office spokesperson told us it remains well positioned to deal with this industrial action, and there is no change in our guidance People are receiving their passports in good time, with 99.7% of applications processed within the published 10-week timeframe.

The final sting in the tail is that the passport fees all rose for the first time in five years in February. The fee for a standard online application made from within the UK rose from 75.50 to 82.50 for adults, and from 49 to 53.50 for children. Postal applications went up from 85 to 93 for adults and from 58.50 to 64 for children. If you were born on or before 2 September 1929, it is free.

This article was amended on 30 April 2023. Passengers will be denied boarding if their passport expires less than three months after their return date, not three months before their return date as an earlier version said. And part of a quote was removed at the request of an interviewee.

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I was in tears: Briton with valid passport barred from flight over Brexit rules - The Guardian

Denmark has decided to extend the deadline for submitting residence applications for Britons who resided in the country before December 31, 2022, and who submitted their applications after the original deadline expired on December 31, 2021.

According to the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI), based on the Withdrawal Agreement, all those who submitted their application after the deadline expired and received a rejection to have their residence application processed will be able to submit a new application until December 31, 2023.

Moreover, the same stressed that the extension of the deadline also applies to Britons who have not submitted an application yet and noted that the authorities would start processing pending applications that were put on hold previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The deadline for submitting an application for residence based on the Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom is being extended until December 31, 2023. The extension will take effect on May 1, 2023. SIRI will reopen the processing of pending applications that previously were put on hold, the statement of SIRI reads.

On the contrary, SIRI highlighted that the extended deadline during which residence applications can be submitted would not apply to Britons who had their application processed and received a refusal due to not meeting the conditions of the Withdrawal Agreement. This group of individuals will not be able to have their applications processed again.

In addition to the above-mentioned, it has been explained that those who received a rejection to have their application processed by SIRI and have a pending appeal will be contacted by the Immigration Appeals Board.

As for those who have received a rejection by SIRI and the Immigration Appeals Board to have their application processed but have not appealed the rejection, it has been explained that they can require SIRI to have their cases reopened.

Britons who submit their residence applications will continue to be required to meet the conditions for residence based on the Withdrawal Agreement. Among others, they must prove that they have resided in Denmark before December 31, 2020, according to the EU regulations on free movement.

Previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that fewer Brits moved to Denmark in 2021, with the country recording a significant drop compared to the last 15 years.

Data provided by Denmark Statistics show that 854 citizens of the UK moved to Denmark in 2021. This is a sharp decline compared to 2020 and 2019, when the country registered 1,406 and 1,584 Britons who moved to the country, respectively.

The rest is here:

Brexit: Britons to Be Able to Submit Residence Applications in ... - SchengenVisaInfo.com

By Tim Baker, Political reporter

Friday 28 April 2023 09:47, UK

The "bonfire" of EU legislation by the government is to scrap less than a quarter of the estimated European laws on statute books, MPs have been told.

Sky News understands Eurosceptic Tory MPs were told by Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch just 800 of roughly 4,000 laws are expected to be ditched by the end of this year.

Brexiteer Conservatives - including the European Research Group - will be angered by what they will see as a watering down of a promised "bonfire" of EU "red tape".

Rishi Sunak said at his agenda-setting New Year's speech that a "big part" of increasing growth in the country was "seizing the opportunities of Brexit", which includes making sure that "regulations are agile" and support "innovation".

"We have new opportunities and freedoms to do that, and we are absolutely going to seize them to deliver for the country," he added at the time.

Jacob Rees-Mogg was the Brexit opportunities minister who was shepherding the Retained EU Law Bill through parliament before he left government when Mr Sunak took office.

This law would revoke EU laws by the end of this year which are judged not to be essential.

Mr Rees-Mogg branded the update from Downing Street as "thin gruel".

And one Eurosceptic MP told Sky News: "I'm extremely disappointed.

"It goes against all the assurances we have had from the prime minister.

"In fact, I'd be very surprised if he supported it."

But a person previously involved in Brexit discussions welcomed the move - and highlighted its pragmatic nature.

Raoul Ruparel, who advised Theresa May on Brexit, said that this was "surely how the process was meant to work" - and that removing laws "for the sake of it" would be "nonsense".

He also pointed out that the ERG's failure to muster a large rebellion over the government's new agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland may have emboldened Downing Street.

Naomi Smith, the chief executive of the anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain, said: "Unless it is scrapped entirely, this bill will automatically remove workers' rights, food standards and environmental protections by the end of the year while unleashing economic chaos in the UK."

Sources close to Ms Badenoch did not deny she made the remarks.

This is a limited version of the story so unfortunately this content is not available. Open the full version

A government spokesman said ministers continue to support the bill and removing "unnecessary" EU laws - but did not commit to completing the removal by the start of 2024.

He said: "We remain committed to ensuring the Retained EU Law Bill receives royal assent and that the supremacy of EU law ends with unnecessary and burdensome EU laws removed by the end of this year.

"Once passed, the bill will enable the country to further seize the opportunities of Brexit by ensuring regulations fit the needs of the UK, helping to grow our economy and drive innovation."

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Brexit: Just 800 of estimated 4,000 EU laws to be scrapped by year's end, MPs told by minister - Sky News

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight

Brexit is killing the hospitality industry, with the number of venue closures rising sixfold in just a year, stark new data obtained exclusively by The Independent shows.

The net closure of almost 4,600 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants in the year to 31 March 2023 the 12 months that followed the ending of Covid restrictions lays bare the devastating impact of staff shortages caused by Brexit as well as the cost of living crisis. The figure compares to just 678 closures in the year to March 2022 and amounts to an average of 12.6 closures a day, with independent family-run businesses taking the biggest hit.

Britain now has 13,793 fewer pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and other licensed premises than it had three years ago. This represents a 12 per cent contraction of the UK hospitality sector, and is more than twice the 6,400 net closures recorded in the three-year period before Britains withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 and the onset of the Covid pandemic a few weeks later.

More than 30 per cent of nightclubs have gone to the wall half of them in the past 12 months while one in 12 restaurants, along with 5 per cent of sports and social clubs, ceased trading in the same period.

Many owners have cited persistent staff shortages since leaving the EU as the main reason they had to close. There are currently 142,000 unfilled jobs in the accommodation and food services sector, according to the Office for National Statistics. This represents a 6.5 per cent job vacancy rate, which is almost 50 per cent above pre-Brexit levels, and is the highest rate across all of the UKs business sectors.

Chef-restaurateur Mark Hix announced with heavy heart last year that he was closing his Dorset pub, the Fox Inn, because of staff shortages. Hix said that despite the end of Covid, the challenges simply continue, with rising costs and a difficulty to recruit like I have never known in my whole career.

Weymouth fish and chip shop Fish n Fritz, shut last month, also citing a lack of staff. Owner Paul Hay said the closure was not due to cost hikes or lack of business, but rather that we cant find staff to keep it open.

Michelin Guide-listed gastro-pub The Muddy Duck in Oxfordshire has ceased trading because it was unable to replace a departing chef team despite trying for three months. And Fenn, one of Fulhams top-rated restaurants, is to shut this weekend due to ongoing staff shortages that make keeping the restaurant open untenable.

Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister who campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU, said: This is happening throughout the economy ... Brexit is a disaster, and increasingly people are saying so. Quite obviously we benefit immensely from access to the qualified European labour pool, and that has been denied to us, with these consequences.

The quicker Britain wakes up to the interdependence of this country with Europe and finds a way of accessing the single market again, the better our economy will be.

Economists say staff shortages are mostly due to post-Brexit immigration policies, which stopped free movement of labour from the EU, making it difficult to bring in lower-paid workers.

Brexit has led to less trade and lower growth, with the UK economy 5.5 per cent poorer than it would have been if Britain had stayed in the EU, according to a study by the Centre for European Reform. This amounts to 40bn in lost tax revenues. The Office for Budget Responsibility said that trade volumes are 7 per cent lower than if we had remained in the EU.

Mark Hix announced with heavy heart last year that he was closing the Fox Inn because of staff shortages

(Photo by Mark Thomas/REX)

Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics and public policy at Kings College London, and a senior fellow at think tank UK in a Changing Europe, told The Independent that lower-paid sectors have been the big losers in the post-Brexit immigration arrangements.

He said: The government would never openly admit it, but the consequence of their stated aim to move to a high-wage, high-skill economy and shrink the low-wage economy is that a significant number of low-wage employers, like hospitality companies, will go bust, as they simply do not have the wiggle room to adjust to paying higher wages.

Ministers will never say that some pubs and hospitality companies will go to the wall as a result of their immigration policies, but that is exactly what their policies are designed to achieve.

Jonathan Thomas, a senior fellow at the Social Market Foundation think tank, said: It was totally envisaged that the end of EU freedom of movement would cause job vacancies in sectors reliant on low-wage EU workers. It seems to be the governments view that hospitality, which grew substantially pre-Brexit, will be collateral damage that it will contract and be a smaller sector than it was.

The new figures on closures, compiled by consultancies CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners, reveal that poorer cities such as Aberdeen and Birmingham have suffered more, losing 19 and 17 per cent respectively of their city centre licensed premises in the past three years, compared to more affluent cities such as Bristol, which lost just 1.5 per cent. The picture in London is more patchy, but overall the city has endured a net decline of 15 per cent.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: Our world-leading hospitality industry is a key driver of Londons and the UKs economy, but many pubs, restaurants and other venues have been hit extremely hard by the impact of Brexit, with changes to immigration rules making it harder to recruit workers.

With the ongoing cost of living crisis, this vital sector is facing an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic set of challenges that need to be addressed by ministers now.

Thousands of pubs and resturants have closed in the past year

(PA Wire)

Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, said: We are one of the only major economies in the developed world with less people employed now than before the pandemic began. It is clear that Brexit has held back growth, but it has also made inequality worse, with parts of the country more impacted by staff shortages and closures than others.

The government has used the shortage occupation list to create exceptions and make it easier to recruit low-wage workers, but while this has been used to help out the construction and social care sectors, it has not been extended to hospitality.

Trade bodies sayimmigration reformsare critical.UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: These results [referring to the CGA data] are stark. We need to see significant support from government in the form of urgent action on the labour market and energy. Staff shortages have plagued the sector for years, and with vacancies 48 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels, the government must take action to change the immigration system.

Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, said we need to look beyond quick fixes to the immigration system. What seems to be happening is that most of our economic growth is because of increased migration, yet at the same time, the government grandly announce they want to reduce it.There is an incoherence about the government approach, which creates uncertainty for businesses as they plan ahead.

Karl Chessell, the director of CGA by NIQ, said that without sustained help to tide the sector through the current crisis, many more closures are likely over the rest of 2023. Graeme Smith, managing director of AlixPartners, added that their joint study revealed that, on current trends, the total number of licensed venues which currently stands at 101,315, employing over 2.2 million people was set to fall below 100,000 this year for the first time in decades.

Many business were already struggling because of Covid

(PA Wire)

Seventy per cent of employers think that restricted access to labour is a threat to their competitiveness, and will be in five years time, according to a poll published in a CBI report last year. Nearly half of the businesses said they wanted the government to grant temporary emergency visas for roles in obvious shortage.

And research carried out by think tanks the Centre for European Reform and UK in a Changing Europe suggests that Brexit has led to a shortfall of 330,000 people in the UK labour force, mostly in the low-skilled economy, compared to how things would have been if we had stayed in the EU.

Luke Wasserman, the co-owner of Fenn, which opened in 2018 and got a reboot off the back of Covid, said staffing has been an ongoing issue.

He said: Prior to Brexit, I believe things were very different. We had 10 good candidates per job before we left the EU; now we are lucky if anyone turns up. Its a constant battle, and especially upsetting because people have put in 60-hour weeks and we have built such a revered reputation. But the truth is that, while Covid was big, Brexit has been massive. You look at all the closures going on countrywide, and you see, yeah, this is definitely an issue.

A government spokesperson said: Hospitality plays a huge role in local economies and communities. We have been working hard to fill vacancies in the sector through our Hospitality Sector Council and our Plan for Jobs and are glad to see vacancies falling 16 per cent in the last year. During the pandemic, much of our 400bn of business support was aimed at hospitality, retail and leisure, and we have provided further support through the 18bn energy bill relief scheme and the energy bills discount scheme for UK businesses, which will run for a further 12 months.

Additional reporting by Archie Mitchell

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Revealed: The great Brexit pubs and clubs shutdown - The Independent