THERESA May has been accused by a senior Bolton peer of misquoting a parliamentary committee to justify granting the Government ‘unprecedented and extraordinary’ powers in the Brexit repeal Bill.
The House of Lords Constitution Committee said the legislation, formally known as the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, ‘weaves a tapestry of delegated powers that are breath-taking in terms of both their scope and potency’.
Committee chairwoman Baroness Ann Taylor of Bolton accused ministers of misquoting and ignoring a previous report by the senior peers, which called for tougher parliamentary oversight of so-called ‘delegated powers’.
It comes after Mrs May used Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to brush off accusations from Tory Remainer Anna Soubry that the Bill amounted to an ‘unprecedented and unnecessary Government power grab’.
Lady Taylor said: “The EU (Withdrawal) Bill represents an extraordinary transfer of legal powers from Parliament to the Government, without the additional oversight we recommended. We believe this will create very real difficulties for Parliament in fulfilling its constitutional role to scrutinise this Bill.
“We acknowledge that the Government needs significant powers in order to deliver legal certainty after Brexit.
“However, we warned the Government that such powers must come with tougher parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms and we are disappointed that we have not only been misquoted by the Government, but that our key recommendations have been ignored.
“The committee will launch a full inquiry on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill shortly.”
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