This morning I challenged Michael Gove on the Government’s negotiations with the EU. Like Boris Johnson, he has repeatedly said they want a ‘Canada-style’ deal, but it’s another bogus claim because they won’t sign up to the standards it would contain (read my article in The Times on their dishonesty on a ‘Canada deal’ here) .  I urged him to commit to maintaining protections for workers’ rights and environmental standards

CETA, the deal between Canada and the EU, contains many non-regression clauses on standards, including a chapter on workers’ rights and two on environmental standards. I urged him to commit to similar standards in the UK’s own deal with the EU, which would ban the Government from lowering these protections.

When Boris Johnson ripped up the Withdrawal Agreement after the December election and rewrote it, he removed the concessions achieved by Labour MPs – commitments to protecting UK workers’ rights and protections for our environment. We don’t trust the Government’s word that they will not lower standards – they’ve proved their dishonesty time and again – it must appear in the deal they promised with the EU.