Boris Johnson’s newly appointed chief negotiator for Brexit has criticised the idea of the European Union being allowed to “set new UK labour market rules without any UK say”.
Writing for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in May, David Frost, who has replaced Olly Robbins as the prime minister’s adviser on Europe, said: “In short, when government takes the right decisions, business will prosper. That assumes, of course, that these decisions are in government’s hands. It is not self-evidently good for London’s businesses if, after Brexit, important decisions affecting our operating conditions are taken outside the country without any UK say.”
In March, when it was trying to get the Withdrawal Agreement through the House of Commons, Theresa May’s government made commitments for Parliament to consider any future changes in EU law that strengthen workers’ rights or workplace health and safety standards, and vote on whether they too should be adopted into UK law.
Frost said: “Business organisations have often in the past criticised the EU’s drift towards heavy labour market regulation. So I will take some persuading it will be a good outcome if the EU is able to set new UK labour market rules without any UK say – as currently seems to be envisaged by the leaders of both major political parties”.
During the transition period the UK would have had to accept European changes to workers’ rights without any say. After that, Parliament were to be given regular updates on changes to EU labour market legislation and MPs given a choice on the action government should take in response, including whether MPs want to decide that the UK should remain aligned with the EU.
David Frost became chief executive of LCCI earlier this year. He had previously been Britain’s ambassador to Denmark and director of Europe, trade and international affairs in the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
EU negotiators are keen to include “non-regression clauses” on workers’ rights in any future trade agreement to ensure the UK does not attract investment for having more lenient employment laws. Frost, since his appointment replacing Robbins as the premier’s Brexit advisor, has taken a very bullish stance and made public pronouncements boasting Boris Johnson will take a much harder line with the EU than Theresa May ever did.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady commented “Boris Johnson claims that he intends to enhance rights at work after Brexit. He and his advisers should be focused on delivering that promise. But instead they are threatening a catastrophic no deal, which would strip away existing legal protections and leave essential rights open to attack. Working people must not be dragged off this cliff edge without getting a final say”.
Further grounds for concern over the future of workers’ rights in the UK surround the recently reported visit in December 2018 of new International Trade Secretary, Liz Truss, then a back bench Tory MP following her resignation from May’s government over the handling of Brexit. Truss, the Cabinet member now in charge of negotiating a US trade deal, met with a series of right wing American think tanks to discuss deregulation and the benefits of “Reaganomics”, new documents uncovered by Greenpeace show. Truss had a number of meetings with libertarian groups that have championed parts of Donald Trump’s deregulatory and tax cuts agenda.
During her three day visit to Washington Truss met representatives from the Heritage Foundation, a think tank committed to shrinking the state and cutting environmental regulation, to discuss “regulatory reform”. Also at the meeting was the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Both groups were part of the “shadow trade talks” project, designed to advocate a wide ranging US trade deal allowing the import of American goods currently banned in Britain.
One briefing note reveals that Truss was keen to hear “what we can learn from “Reaganomics” on things like regulation and red tape”. Truss also planned to tell the Heritage Foundation that she is “committed to” and “personally interested in” exploring similar reforms in the UK. “Reaganomics” is shorthand for the policies of the former Republican US President Ronald Reagan, based on tax cuts, deregulation and attacking unions and workers’ rights.
Truss made no secret of her interest in cutting the size of the state. However, she is now in charge of Britain’s post Brexit trade deals in a government committed to leaving the EU with no deal if necessary. Such an outcome will pave the way for a weakening of UK employment laws, together with an undermining of food and environmental protections. The US agricultural sector has insisted that any deal with the UK scraps restrictions on chlorinated chicken, hormone-treated beef and pesticide usage currently banned by the EU.
John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, said: “There are widespread concerns that Brexit will be used to weaken our safeguards on food safety and animal welfare, opening the floodgates to products such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef. These concerns will only grow at the discovery that the minister in charge of forging a trade deal with the US flew to a libertarian boot camp run by Donald Trump’s buddies to be lectured about the supposed benefits of ditching regulations. Boris Johnson promised a trade deal with the US that would not jeopardise our food and animal welfare standards. People will be watching closely to see whether these words mean anything at all”.
Truss also met the chief economist of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organisation infamous in the US for its lobbying against climate change. Her meeting involved a discussion of the success of Trump’s efforts to deregulate the US economy. Another document revealed that an official from the Foreign Office wrote on Truss’ behalf to another free market think tank, R Street Institute, requesting a meeting to discuss “business deregulation”.
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the free market, anti-worker agenda of Johnson’s government, the most right wing one in the UK’s history.