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The government’s ‘Great Repeal Bill’ could have “fundamental long-term effects on rights, poverty and the environment” unless significantly reformed, warn campaign groups Another Europe is Possible and Global Justice Now today.

As the bill receives its first reading in the House of Commons, campaigners claim that the bill will hand sweeping powers to the government to make changes on a very wide range of regulation from working regulations to environmental protection to consumer protections.

Marks and Spencer will face calls at their AGM on Tuesday to stop advertising in the Daily Mail, with an open letter being delivered by a large cross section of UK anti-racist and migrant solidarity groups in which it says that, “M&S’s financial support for the Daily Mail is actively contributing to the growing tide of harassment and violence that migrants (including asylum seekers and refugees), Muslims and people of colour are facing on the streets of the UK.”

In response to the G20 communique, Nick Dearden, director of social justice group Global Justice Now said:

“Angela Merkel has managed to hold it together – just about. The divisions in the international elite have nearly been papered over by this statement, but at the expense of any meaningful strategy. The statement lacks any vision for getting us out of this crisis, takes no responsibility for the state of the world, and is evidently just so much hot air for most of the countries who signed onto it.

Modern trade agreements are increasingly not about tariffs but about making sure laws and regulations don’t obstruct the free flow of capital. Such ‘obstructions’ are likely to include public services like the NHS, labour rights, consumer standards and environmental protection. So it’s crucial that there is proper parliamentary oversight of these deals or we run the risk of free-market fundamentalists like Liam Fox junking vast swathes of the UK’s important legal protections without anyone being able to do anything about it. 

Responding to the news of Theresa May's proposal on the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after Brexit, Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: