Brexit: Broken Promises And Broken Laws

The UK's departure from the European Union, or Brexit, was set in motion by a referendum held on 23 June 2016, in which 51.9% of voters chose to leave the EU. The process of withdrawing from the EU was governed by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which allows a member state to withdraw in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.

The UK government triggered Article 50 on 29 March 2017, and the withdrawal was initially scheduled for 29 March 2019. However, the deadline was extended multiple times due to failed negotiations and political deadlock in the UK.

During the referendum campaign, the pro-Brexit organisation Vote Leave was found to have broken electoral spending laws and was fined £61,000. There were also allegations of law-breaking by other pro-Brexit groups, and concerns about Russian interference in the referendum.

Following Brexit, the UK government has taken steps to shake off the legacy of EU law, including through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, which aims to revoke a large amount of EU-derived legislation by the end of 2023. This has raised concerns about the potential impact on key areas such as employment law, consumer protections, and data protection.

Vote Leave broke electoral law

Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. It was founded in October 2015 by political strategists Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings as a cross-party campaign. The campaign was also supported by a number of prominent politicians, including the then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who became a key figurehead for Vote Leave.

On 17 July 2018, Vote Leave was found guilty of breaking electoral law by overspending and was fined £61,000. The organisation was also referred to the police. This decision came after an investigation by the Electoral Commission, which found that Vote Leave funnelled £675,315 through the pro-Brexit youth group BeLeave in the days leading up to the referendum. This helped ensure that Vote Leave did not breach its £7 million spending limit.

Vote Leave bosses claimed that they had been given the go-ahead to give the money to BeLeave and that they had acted within the rules. However, the Electoral Commission found significant evidence of joint working between the two groups and concluded that Vote Leave should have declared the spending as its own.

In March 2019, Vote Leave dropped its appeal against the fine, citing a lack of financial resources to continue the legal battle. In a statement, the organisation said that it had "successfully fought back against numerous allegations and conspiracy theories" but was unable to continue the appeal, despite being "confident that [it] would have prevailed on the facts in Court".

Leave campaigners broke the law in other ways

The Vote Leave campaign, which was designated as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union, was found guilty of breaking electoral law by overspending. In 2018, Vote Leave was fined £61,000 and referred to the police. The Electoral Commission also ruled that the campaign had broken spending laws by funnelling money through a youth-focused offshoot called BeLeave. This allowed Vote Leave to exceed its spending limit by £675,000.

Vote Leave was also criticised for running a "dire" campaign that left the public lacking proper information. The Electoral Reform Society contrasted it unfavourably with the "well-informed grassroots" campaign for Scottish independence, describing it as "glaringly deficient" and noting that it generated a generally negative response to establishment figures.

In addition to Vote Leave, other pro-Brexit groups were also found to have broken the law. In 2018, Leave.EU was fined £70,000 for unlawfully overspending and inaccurately reporting loans. The Liberal Democrats and Open Britain, two pro-EU groups, were also fined for breaches of campaign finance rules.

The UK government misled the public about the impact of leaving the EU

The Vote Leave campaign was co-ordinated by political strategists Matthew Elliot and Dominic Cummings, and involved members of parliament from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, and UKIP. The campaign was also supported by prominent politicians, including the then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who became a key figurehead.

Vote Leave was criticised for its misleading claims about the costs and benefits of EU membership. For example, Vote Leave claimed that the costs of EU membership outweighed the benefits of the EU's single market. This claim was based on the European Commission's own figures, but was nonetheless misleading and caused public confusion.

Another instance of misleading information was Vote Leave's claim that the UK could save £350 million per week by leaving the EU, which could then be spent on priorities like the NHS. This figure was deemed "misleading" by the UK Statistics Authority, an independent public body. Despite this, 47% of the country believed the claim, according to a mid-June 2016 poll by Ipsos MORI.

The Vote Leave campaign also took advantage of the public's concerns about immigration, with the campaign's grassroots arm, led by Nigel Farage, galvanising those who felt "left behind" by changes in society and the economy. This dual campaign strategy allowed Vote Leave to mobilise two types of voters and ultimately served them well.

In addition to misleading claims, the Vote Leave campaign was also found guilty of breaking electoral law by overspending. They were fined £61,000 and referred to the police for further investigation.

The misleading nature of the Vote Leave campaign and its impact on the referendum outcome has been described by Professor Michael Dougan of the University of Liverpool as "one of the most dishonest political campaigns this country [the UK] has ever seen".

The UK government is attempting to revoke EU-derived legislation

The bill was introduced to Parliament on 22 September 2022 and is expected to abolish the special status of retained EU law in the UK statute book on 31 December 2023. It will enable the government, via Parliament, to amend, repeal and replace retained EU law more easily. The bill will also include a sunset date by which all remaining retained EU law will either be repealed or assimilated into UK domestic law.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill is the culmination of a journey that began on 23 June 2016, when more than 17 million citizens of the UK and Gibraltar voted for the UK to leave the European Union (EU). The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, following a public vote held in June 2016.

The government's approach to making the UK 'the best regulated economy in the world' is set out in the Benefits of Brexit document published in January 2022. This approach is supplemented by the reviews into the substance and status of retained EU law, which commenced in September 2021. The bill will provide the means for the government, via Parliament, to update legislation in response to the outcome of these reviews.

The bill has been criticised by the Regulatory Policy Committee, which stated that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) had not undertaken any substantive analysis to support the bill and described BEIS's impact assessment as "not fit for purpose". This criticism was echoed by the President of the Law Society, who observed that if the bill were enacted in its current form, its potential impact would be "devastating".

Despite this criticism, the UK government maintains that the bill is necessary to fully realise the opportunities of Brexit and to support the unique culture of innovation in the UK.

The UK government is attempting to remove the supremacy of EU law

The UK Government's Attempt to Remove the Supremacy of EU Law

The UK government is currently in the process of removing the supremacy of EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. This bill was introduced to Parliament on 22 September 2022, marking the two-year anniversary of Brexit. The bill is part of the government's commitment to putting the UK statute book on a more sustainable footing and reclaiming the sovereignty of Parliament.

The Retained EU Law Bill will abolish the special status of retained EU law, which consists of EU-derived legislation preserved in the domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This legislation was never intended to remain indefinitely on the UK statute book. By ending its special status, the government will be able to amend, repeal, and replace retained EU law more easily.

The bill includes a sunset date of 31 December 2023, by which all remaining retained EU law will either be repealed or assimilated into UK domestic law. This means that the principle of the supremacy of EU law, general principles of EU law, and directly effective EU rights will also end on that date. The government has the option to extend the sunset date for specified pieces of retained EU law until 2026 if needed.

The bill also facilitates the departure of domestic courts from retained case law and modifies the status of retained EU legislation to enable easier amendments. Additionally, it grants ministers wide-ranging powers to preserve, restate, or replace EU-derived legislation. However, the default position is that a large amount of EU-derived legislation will fall away at the end of 2023 unless ministers take specific steps to preserve it.

The Retained EU Law Bill has been subject to criticism and may undergo significant amendments during its passage through Parliament. There are concerns about the complexity and uncertainty of the process, the potential impact on key areas such as employment law, environmental protections, consumer protections, and data protection, and the reduced scrutiny by Parliament. Nevertheless, the bill is likely to be passed into law, albeit with some compromises, given the political reality and the commitment to delivering on Brexit.

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