Labour has continued to diverge from bloc’s laws, meaning most of UK’s protections are weaker than pre-Brexit
UK falling behind EU on environmental rules amid post-Brexit rollback
Keir Starmer’s government has continued to diverge from EU environmental laws since the Labour party won the 2024 general election, meaning the UK’s environmental protections are weaker than before Brexit.
From putting rare species at risk by ditching the habitats directive to failing to keep up with chemicals regulations that keep people and wildlife safe, here are some of the areas in which the UK has fallen behind.
When the UK was in the EU, it was under the habitats directive, which meant developers were not allowed to negatively affect the habitats of rare creatures such as nightingales, dormice and red squirrels without mitigation on the same site. Labour is ripping this up with its planning and infrastructure bill, which allows developers to pay into a general nature fund rather than keeping or creating new habitat nearby to make up for what is destroyed.
