John Baron MP quashes concept of Government ‘power grab’

MP says EU Bill undoes the biggest ‘Henry VIII’ clause of all

Today in the House of Commons, the EU Withdrawal Bill returned for the first day of its Committee Stage, when all MPs consider the text of the Bill in depth.

In the Chamber, John asked,

“Would the Minister agree with me that those who accuse the Government of a ‘power grab’ would be happy for unelected EU officials to continue to exercise these powers, rather than an elected Government accountable to an elected Parliament?”

The Minister agreed with John and said that people should welcome the fact that sovereignty was being returned to this Parliament.

Afterwards, John said,

“Those who criticise the Government for using the EU Withdrawal Bill to engineer a ‘power grab’ themselves fail to grasp that the Bill instead returns control of these powers to our Parliament at Westminster. Repealing the European Communities Act, which gives EU law supremacy over our domestic law, arguably undoes the effects of the biggest ‘Henry VIII’ clause in our history.”