Creasy and Tice call for Brexit scrutiny committee

Stella Creasy and Richard Tice are pushing for Labour to allow a Brexit scrutiny committee to be formed in parliament, after the Guardian revealed environmental protections had been eroded.

- Helena Horton

The Labour and Reform UK MPs argue that there is no scrutiny or accountability over how Brexit is being implemented.

Since Brexit, analysis by the Guardian and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has found the EU has brought forward 28 new, revised or upgraded pieces of environmental legislation that the UK has not adopted, and the UK has actively chosen to regress by changing four different pieces of legislation, including on protected habitats, pesticides and fisheries.

Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow and chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said the prime minister, Keir Starmer, needed to move more quickly to repair relations with the EU and realign on environmental law.

"I am working with Richard Tice as well as other Brexit sceptics on restoring some sort of European scrutiny committee in parliament so we can decide if and when we want to diverge rather than it all being passive," she said. "We don't have a body in parliament that knows both UK and EU law and can forge a way forward."

"This data from the Guardian and IEEP makes the case for having a scrutiny committee looking at if we diverge, and if we strengthen or weaken environmental protections. MPs aren't scrutinising this at all at the moment. They don't even know about what's going on."