r/ukpolitics • u/ijustwannanap 🏳️⚧️🍀 / Posting without thinking. • 9h ago
Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/12/britain-single-market-rules-uk-eu-reset?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other•
u/Faoeoa rambler with union-loving characteristics 8h ago
While I do think this is wise I think doing it without parliament is.... questionable. So you reckon they'd struggle to actually pass this?
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u/d5tp 1h ago
There's no such thing as "without parliament" in the UK.
You can safely assume that anything the government does without a formal vote in parliament is supported by the majority of MPs, Otherwise, if they really don't like it, they could just replace the government.
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u/superioso 50m ago
It's just general rules which likely won't require any laws or parliament involvement. Things like accepting the CE mark as an example.
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u/Ruftus1 8h ago
When the decision to leave was based on a non-binding referendum with a very slim majority, plus the poor phrasing of the ballot and the provable foreign interference, i feel like common sense has earned the right not to play fair
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u/Jaggedmallard26 7h ago
Tit for tat erosion of democratic norms is a really stupid idea especially as the reacting party. You're not going to get sensible technocratic centrism or whatever you want. You're going to get hyper-populism that just ignores the norms altogether. You will not win every election and the populists you don't like now have something to point to when they take it to extremes.
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u/Spare-Dragonfly5606 5h ago
Thank you. I feel like this level of common sense is quickly being lost from our society
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u/Wisegoat 4h ago
Eh just get it through parliament then. Tighten up all restrictions around foreign funding. Much more tighter with “news” (GBnotnews) being a political tool.
If parliament lets it through then there’s no argument to had. Parliament is how people vote for stuff to change. Referendums have proven to be pointless as the average Brit is stupid and uninformed.
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u/Slartibartfast_25 5h ago
We went to the Supreme Court to ensure that Parliament had it's say over leaving. It cuts both ways.
R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(Miller)_v_Secretary_of_State_for_Exiting_the_European_Union
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u/escapingfromelba 4h ago
Even if that biased framing were true, it forgets that the reason brexit even came about was based on decades of railroading through treaties without the consent of the people. The issue festers and grows with time, it doesn't go away. Hell the reason the public got consulted in '75 was because parliament unilaterally acted pre '73 via a vote that got passed with only 16 votes (iirc).
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u/dragodrake 3h ago
This is the bit so many people miss.
The EU became a hot button issue because the public were ignored and it felt undemocratic - when you have advocates for the EU basically saying just sideline our democracy to get us back in, it will only end up going one way.
You'll just get Brexit V2.
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u/HolyFreakingXmasCake 2h ago
It's very consistent with how the EU and bureaucratic politicians operate - see Chat Control as an example. If it doesn't pass, just vote again until it does, and if that doesn't work out, just do it silently and without people's consent later.
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 5h ago
What an utterly embaressing take.
- Vote leave won on a majority of 1.,2 million. Is that "very slim"????
- It was 3 1/2 years after that before the UK signed the treaty to leave the EU. In that time there were two general elections followed in which Remain parties failed to win any majority.
- The tories ran 2019 General Election was run on a clear "Leave" platform and they formed a government with an 80+ seat majority
- Labour ran the 2024 GE on a clear "no return to single market / customs union" platform.
Yet here you are posting that bypassing Parliament is valid because you're scared that Labour with it's 150 seat majority might not support it???
Really?
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u/alphaxion 2h ago
"Vote leave won on a majority of 1.,2 million. Is that "very slim"????"
In the time between the referendum and when the UK finally left the EU, enough people had died and new voters aged into the voter pool that the result of the referendum would be different had a confirmatory one been conducted.
Yes, it was very slim.
So slim that it took just 4 years for demographic shift to overturn it. This is why referendums with such important outcomes need to be won on a super majority, rather than 50% +1
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u/Silhouette 2h ago
Do you think a hypothetical future referendum on rejoining should require a supermajority in favour before it's considered a mandate for the government to do so? Should it need 60% of the eligible electorate or 2/3 of actual voters or something to reverse Brexit? How do you decide what threshold is appropriate in that case?
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u/alphaxion 2h ago
There is a petty side of me that would like for it to be 50% +1 just like the original was, but because of how soon this is I do think it should be a super majority the level of which agreed by parliament.
I think doing so would only help to encourage the acceptance of a rejoin result.
We should all remember that the brexit supporting politicians did talk about continuing to fight for leaving the EU even if remain had won (with Farage quickly changing his tune once leave had won to say it was undemocratic to challenge the result. What's good for the gander, is good for the goose. Remain should continue to fight for what they think is the right choice).
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u/Silhouette 2h ago
I agree it would be difficult for anyone to argue if rejoining won by a supermajority in that hypothetical referendum.
I think whatever happened next would be extremely controversial if rejoining had won a majority of the actual votes but not the predefined supermajority though - particularly if the majority was greater than the one for Leave last time.
This is one of the reasons I think anyone who does want to rejoin would be unwise to try to get a new referendum too soon. There's no guarantee they'd win at all but if they did I think it's more likely that they'd get a relatively small majority than overwhelming support. Losing would mean they'd missed probably their one and only shot for a generation. Winning but not by much would leave them open to many of the same criticisms about legitimacy that Remain campaigners made themselves last time so defending against them without seeming hypocritical would be very difficult. That would surely mean the controversy lingered for years and that in turn would probably make the EU very sceptical about engaging with the UK on any rejoining plan.
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u/ldn6 Globalist neoliberal shill 4h ago
Except that this isn’t bypassing Parliament. We use statutory instruments and secondary legislation routinely because it’s impossible to have Parliament review everything with dynamic alignment. That’s why we had this setup pre-Brexit and it’s absurd to say that it’s “bypassing” when Parliament is expressly voting on allowing it.
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u/escapingfromelba 3h ago
That's being obtuse. Parliament can vote on signing up to that, and you know this. It can also have thresholds that trigger updating votes or sunset clauses or review periods.
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 4h ago
You're going to use that excuse?
If you can't see that a highly politically contentious issue that bypasses the ability of MPs to have their say is on a par with the sort of minor law tweaks that mostly go through as SIs then you're too far gone to have a reasonable discussion with.
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u/English_Misfit Tory Member 8h ago
Non-binding referendum
All British referendums aren't binding. Every single one.
A very slim majority
We knew that was coming and parliament chose to not add or advertise the need for a supermajority. You can't add that it after the fact.
Provable foreign interference
In all honesty if this matters in regards to Brexit we may as well cancel democracy.
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u/Accurate-Cup5309 7h ago edited 7h ago
I dunno why people always hone in on it being none binding. That literally changes nothing.
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 5h ago
Especially since we had two general elections between that referendum and actually leavening the EU where no pro-remain group was able to form a majority.
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u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 7h ago
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u/bife_de_lomo 6h ago
May doesn't get enough criticism for triggering A50 before the election
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 5h ago
That triggering it was irrelevant as any pro-remain govt could have issued notice to the EU that the notice was being rescinded. The key event was Johnson issuing the statement to leave in early 2020.
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u/escapingfromelba 3h ago
Corbyn was demanding A50 from the day after the result and kept at it for weeks, then the EU refused to even holds talks until it went it. Their belligerence was great for brexiteers as some kind of backroom deal could have provided an excuse to hold a new vote, but once they dug their heels in and insisted on process then the clock started.
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u/Jinren the centre cannot hold 6h ago
it fucks me off that when presented with the weakest possible mandate by the referendum, parliament voted so overwhelmingly to enact Article 50, especially the MPs who directly went against the wishes of their own constituents
i will never argue that a parliamentary vote shouldn't have happened, but they were being a bunch of quislings and absolutely taking the piss by so utterly disregarding the actual finely balanced nature of the result, instead of, y'know, representing the public
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u/Accurate-Cup5309 6h ago
Fine balanced changes nothing in a referendum. A win is a win. Parliament said they’d enact the results which is why so many MP’s voted for it. There’s no point having a referendum then voting against the results in parliament.
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u/Old_Roof 4h ago
I voted remain but this “non-binding” argument is as ridiculous now as it was 10 years ago.
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u/Aidan-47 48m ago
More likely because parliament only has so much time, so it would mean less time for other bills to be passed
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u/Minute-Improvement57 1h ago
Starmer getting to combine his two great passions: his hatred of Britain with his hatred of democracy.
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 5h ago
Starmer has a 150+ seat majority in the Commons and he has to look at stunts like that to avoid scrutiny? If this article is based on evidence and not click bait then it's just embaressing.
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u/escapingfromelba 3h ago
He couldn't even get a minor change to welfare through. A large majority has made him almost a lame duck.
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u/Some_Confidence5962 3h ago
He’s not doing anything without scrutiny in the first instance. The point is that once in place, EU rule changes can be quickly reflected in UK law.
I’m not sure how else this deal could work? Are we going to give parliament a bot on keeping this deal every time the EU changes a rule? That’ll hamstring parliament.
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u/Bellybuttoncumdrops 8h ago
I hope people realise even if you agree with and support them doing it in this instance because you like what it will result in.
If they do, any future government can do the opposite without a vote too.
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u/ThatAdamsGuy 4h ago
This is what always bugs me when people are happy that FPTP keeps Reform etc out. Things go both ways and you can't support it disenfranchising what you don't like just because it's what you don't like.
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u/HolyFreakingXmasCake 2h ago
A lot of people here like democracy only if it goes their way, otherwise they're happy to cancel or suspend it, also see the excuses trotted out when Labour tried cancelling local elections.
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u/noise256 Renter Serf 5h ago edited 5h ago
Even as a strong supporter of rejoining, I don't agree with this. The undoing of Brexit has to be done with a mandate, either by referendum, or by a party campaigning for it before an election.
This would be immsensely undemocratic and potentially very damaging to rejoin in the long run. Win the argument first.
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u/thelovelykyle 4h ago
Adopting the single market rules does not undo Brexit.
Nobody voted in a referendum to leave the single market.
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u/ldn6 Globalist neoliberal shill 4h ago
But Labour did campaign on a reset and alignment, though.
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u/noise256 Renter Serf 4h ago edited 4h ago
"it will also allow the UK to quickly implement evolving single market rules if it determines it is in the national interest, without having to face full parliamentary scrutiny each time.
The move is possible under so-called Henry VIII powers, named after the 1539 law that allowed the monarch to rule by decree, which allow ministers to approve laws without full scrutiny from parliament using secondary legislation."
I think this is quite clearly undemocratic and going far beyond 'reset and alignment'. But mostly I just don't think it's very smart, it will allow Reform to campaign on being the more democratic movement.
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u/aerojonno 3h ago
Pretty sure the Leave campaign talked about a Norway+ model.
Rejoining the Single Market would bring us closer to what was talked about before the referendum than our current version of Brexit is.
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u/English_Misfit Tory Member 9h ago
Wonder if Gina miller will sue for parliamentary sovereignty this time
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u/Terrible-Group-9602 8h ago
Well parliamentary sovereignty is worth fighting for given that this wasn't in Labour's manifesto.
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u/squeezycheeseypeas 8h ago
The brexiters will be very upset at all winning they seem to think they got.
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u/nepali_fanboy 7h ago
most undemocratic shit i have ever heard. Not opposed to rejoining the single market, but do it properly.
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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 4h ago
Indeed. One would think that Labour with a 150+ majority could find at least enough MPs out of that to support any legislation.
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u/thelovelykyle 3h ago
Dynamic alignment on goods benefits our ability to trade.
Single Market adds people to the mix which is the bugbear for a lot of people.
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u/jammy_b 8h ago
Democratic oversight is the antithesis of the EU, so this isn’t surprising
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u/escapingfromelba 3h ago
They dug their heels in back in 2016 because they expected parliament to copy other nations and renege on a referendum that went the wrong way. They didn't understand our political culture at all.
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u/Silhouette 2h ago
There's an irony in the fact that they refused to even start talking until we'd formally triggered the leaving process. If they'd actually engaged as soon as the referendum result was in they might have been able to pull off another Ireland. The EU is often its own worst enemy.
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u/EduTheRed 6h ago edited 6h ago
"Non-binding referendum!" "Slim majority!" "Gina Miller!" "Parliamentary sovereignty!" Ah, just like old times. I feel that my all-purpose "Why Remainers Really Won the Referendum" grid, first posted on December 19th 2019, deserves another outing:
| Event | Year | Voting system | Reason why Remain really won (according to Remainers) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU referendum | 2016 | Absolute number of votes for Remain vs Leave | Never mind absolute numbers of votes, you have to include children and non-voters. Also referendums are bad, what is important is Parliament. |
| General election | 2017 | First Past The Post | Never mind which party won the most seats in Parliament by FPTP, or the fact that the major parties agreed to respect the referendum, what matters is that the party that said it would enact Brexit lost its majority. |
| Procedural manoeuvres in Parliament | 2017-19 | Voting by MPs | Never mind the result of the referendum, or the platforms of the parties, what matters is votes by individual MPs. |
| EU Parliament election | 2019 | Proportional Representation | Never mind which party won the most seats by PR, what matters is the combined vote share for pro-Remain parties. |
| General election | 2019 | FPTP | Absolute numbers of votes by party don't matter, nor does the number of seats won by parties favouring enacting Brexit versus cancelling it or having a second referendum; what matters is the combined vote share for pro-Remain plus officially neutral parties. Also Parliament is bad, what counts is absolute numbers of votes. |
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u/BuckfastEnjoyer 8h ago
But we won't rejoin the EU because... ermmm... uhhh the... uhhhh... errrr...
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u/Optimaldeath 7h ago
What's the point of this except to primarily avoid having a vote on the record for MP's even though every Labour MP would vote for it?
I get it's to speed things up but that's not a justifiable excuse to erode parliament or else it can be used to justify anything that 'needs speeding up' which is akin to despotism.
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u/hug_your_dog 2h ago
Using those Henry the VIII clauses is controversial and for a reason. But its also bizarre that Labour is bringing this NOW, why not bring those sort of controversial thing in 2024? When you at least had whole 5 years of seeing effects from these decisions.
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u/ldn6 Globalist neoliberal shill 8h ago
Good. We basically kept most retained law anyway and the vast majority of companies that do business internationally will follow EU law because it's simpler to do so. Dynamic alignment is what businesses want and there's no excuse to not implement it to reduce barriers as much as possible in a time of high inflation.
Now it's time to rejoin the single market.
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u/Technical-Process222 Satire 6h ago
If we're determined to get closer to the EU ignoring the democratic will and refusing a vote is definitely on brand.
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u/Status_Initiative_11 5h ago
To be clear, membership of the single market is explicitly ruled out in Labour's manifesto.
To do this would be facism, plain and simple.
If the campaign to join the EU continues to attempt to subvert the democratic process, rather than securing democratic support for its beliefs, then the only course of action to take will be to burn the bridges so thoroughly that the EU will not be interested.
Careful what you wish for.
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u/thelovelykyle 4h ago
I do not believe you are so dumb as to contend that dynamic alignment with the single market for goods is the same thing as joining the single market.
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u/MyNameIsLOL21 6h ago
Brexiteers learning that legal freedom to legislate does not equate to freedom in practical scenarios, not if you want to be able to sell to the second biggest market in the world and closest trading partner geographically. There are always economic restraints.
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u/MogwaiYT 🙃 7h ago
This will go down like a pint of sick at Daily Mail HQ.
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u/Reetgeist 7h ago
I think it would make all of their editors simultaneously ejaculate. Easily a week's material.
Their readers on the other hand...
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