Rishi Sunak has been accused of squandering Brexit freedoms after introducing sweeping EU equality rules into UK law.
The new regulations enshrine Brussels-derived protections against discrimination in domestic law in an expansion of the Equality Act.
The measures would have stopped applying in Britain at the end of last year as part of a bonfire of retained EU laws.
But the move has prompted a furious response from leading Tory Brexiteers.
Former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Sunday Telegraph: “Not only people who voted for Brexit, but people who didn’t, would think that implementing European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgments in any form is simply weird. We have left the EU.
“I cannot understand why the Government wishes to put more burdens on businesses and add to the Equality Act’s damage to our economic vibrancy.”
Veteran Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash added: “This was done, in my opinion, by virtue of extremely bad advice. Nobody seems to have quite grasped how important these issues are.”
New Conservatives co-founded Miriam Cates said it would “undermine our understanding of discrimination rather than to strengthen it … by gold-plating an obscure piece of foreign case law that essentially allows someone without a protected characteristic to piggyback off someone who does”.
The Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2023 were approved by MPs on December 13.
A Government spokesman said the legislation was “essential” to “ensure that existing key rights and principles such as equal pay and protections for breastfeeding women were enshrined in law”.
They said: “We are not re-stating EU law where it is not needed. This legislation applies only to directly discriminatory statements relating to recruitment decisions. Individuals will continue to be free to express their personal beliefs as they are at present.
“However, we have noted a number of concerns from MPs and are giving these careful consideration. We have not ruled out the possibility of making further amendments to legislation.”
