The Government has sparked consternation and fury with a decision to abolish a key scrutinising MP select committee on European Union affairs, despite its renegotiation plans.
Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell revealed plans for a major shake up of the MP select committee system this morning, including a complete reshuffle of their chairmanships.
However, the plans reveal that the EU Scrutiny Committee will be axed.
The Committee was established long before Brexit, in 2010, and was chaired by Tory grandee Sir Bill Cash for its entire 14-year existence prior to him standing down at the election.
Its job was to monitor any issues of legal or political importance of new EU legislation and policy, and assess their impact on the UK. In recent years, it played an important role in scrutinizing the EU Withdrawal Agreement, new trade deal with the EU and the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Despite the government now moving to re-open Brexit talks altogether and renegotiate the UK's relationship with the continent, Ms Powell moved to abolish the committee entirely.
Reacting to the news, former Tory MP member of the body David Jones told the Express that he has no doubt Foreign Secretary David Lammy did not want close scrutiny of the Government's EU policy.
Mr Jones said that the Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Bill “did excellent work in holding the last Conservative Government to account on EU-related matters”.
“It was especially effective on the issue of the Westminster Framework, drawing attention to the extent to which Northern Ireland was being drawn into the orbit of Brussels.
“David Lammy was a member of the committee but rarely turned up, no doubt because he disapproved of close scrutiny of an institution to which he believes the UK should be drawing closer.”
A Conservative and ERG source who worked with Sir Bill while he headed the committee said it had “amassed an expertise and institutional memory far in excess of the FCDO, which made it the terror of all unprepared ministers”.
“Uniquely of Commons Committees, it also had a pro-Brexit majority.
“It's passing marks the end of an era, if the government doesn't want scrutiny of its EU laws and agreements then what is simpler than abolishing the European Scrutiny Committee?”
Tory MP Greg Smith described the announcement by Labor as a “crazy move”, which “takes away all realistic and expert parliamentary scrutiny of the ongoing review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Gibraltar negotiations, EU security and defense policy, retained EU law, and the Windsor Framework”.
Mr Smith observed: “It's as if Labor wants to hide from any talk of the EU where many issues still remain.”
The European Scrutiny Committee, despite being helmed by a Tory MP, was far from friendly to Conservative Governments over the years.
In 2016 then-Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called Sir Bill Cash “a total s***” after the committee published a secret Brussels legal report on the EU deal negotiated by David Cameron, despite hopes to keep it under wraps.
An MP told the Express that Sir Bill being called “a total s***” by Mr Hammond was the committee's “finest hour”.