We need to force the UK government to protect environmental and animal welfare standards in post-Brexit trade deals before it is too late, writes European Movement CEO Anna Bird.

So much for parliamentary scrutiny! It is nearly two months since the government closed the only committee with the power to scrutinise the Brexit deal as a whole. And Jacob Rees-Mogg has done nothing to replace or reinstate it.

Just seven weeks after we left the Single Market and the Customs Union, we are already seeing the damaging effects of Brexit on British jobs and businesses. Try as they might, the government can no longer pretend that these are “teething problems”. This is the stark reality of the hard Brexit they have inflicted on the UK.

This week brought good news. Under pressure from thousands of campaigners like you, the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday announced that his department is scrapping its proposed review of workers’ rights after Brexit.

This means that crucial employment rights like the absolute maximum 48-hour working week, rest breaks at work, and holiday pay entitlements are not under imminent threat.

Over 5,500 European Movement members and supporters wrote to their MP, demanding that they uphold vital protections and ensure that the UK keeps pace with any new EU protections too. Together we were part of making the government reconsider and showed that we won’t back down on our fundamental rights.

We will keep monitoring and exposing any government plans to pull us further away from the rights we had as EU members. And we won’t stop there; we will be pushing the government to go further by keeping pace with new workers' rights protections in the EU. But for now, thank you so much for helping us win this round.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

EUROPEAN MOVEMENT BRIEFING ON THE OPPOSITION DAY DEBATE MOTION TO PROTECT EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS, JANUARY 2021