Sir Keir Starmer is poised to realign with EU rules on the automotive industry in what Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has branded a "total betrayal" of the freedoms won through Brexit.
Shared exclusively with the People's Channel, the new Stand for Our Sovereignty organisation, backed by think-tank Brexit Facts4EU, has obtained proof that Britain's motor industry is to fall under EU rules.
In May 2024, two months before Starmer swept to power, the UK's position on vehicle regulation was crystal clear.
The Department of Transport (DfT) had produced a policy paper that promised to keep the motor industry untethered to the EU.
Starmer has realigned the automotive industry with EU laws
|PA
What was in the policy paper?
The paper underlined the Government's intention to "seize the opportunities of Brexit to ensure our regulatory system is agile and pro-innovation".
Part of the document reads: "Now that the UK has left the EU, we can rethink vehicle regulation.
"We have the freedom to create a system that meets the needs of manufacturers and consumers in the UK.
"In line with the commitment made in the Government's manifesto in 2019, we will reform vehicle standards, ensuring they are sensible and proportionate and take into consideration the needs of small businesses when devising new rules."
Automotive-related manufacturing contributes £93billion in turnover
| GETTY'Total betrayal'
A year later, the Prime Minister is set to roll back on this commitment to keep the industry unhooked from the EU.
In an official response from the Department for Transport to the House of Commons Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, it reads: "The department recently wrote to manufacturers to reassure them that GB regulations will be maintained to be aligned with those in the EU to ensure vehicles can continue to be sold UK-wide."
Its response goes on to say: "The Department has made a commitment to an explicit presumption of alignment because this is in the interest of the UK in terms of breaking down barriers to trade with our largest trading partner, in a predominantly export-focused industry, and protecting the UK internal market.
"This provides manufacturers with certainty about the future development of the UK regulations and the department's intention to maintain alignment with the requirements in the EU while recognising that correct procedures for amending legislation must be followed, including consulting on all proposals for change."
Suella Braverman labelled the move as a 'phenomenal betrayal'
| GETTYThe backlash
Deputy Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice has blasted the move, telling GB News: "Starmer is deliberately handcuffing our car industry to follow EU rules with no say. It will add thousands of pounds to car prices as well as be a thin end of the EU wedge, a total betrayal of Brexit and the vast opportunities it brings," adding: "Reform will reverse this foolish madness."
Likewise, Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman branded the decision a "phenomenal betrayal" of Brexit.
She told GB News: “The Prime Minister has pulled the handbrake up on our Brexit freedoms and handed our car industry back to Brussels.
“This Brexit bombshell is a phenomenal betrayal. The UK is once again a rule taker, not a rule maker. Is this really what working people voted for?”
The smoking gun
The policy shift came to light following concerns raised by the leader of the TUV Party in Northern Ireland, Jim Allister MP, who brought forward a motion to annul some of the Government’s Statutory Instruments, which are akin to executive orders allowing no debate.
The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee which reviews such motions, asked the Department of Transport for a response. It was their response which revealed the new government policy to align completely with the EU.
Speaking to GB News, Allister underlined the gravity of reneging on this promise: “The reason why Great Britain is now threatened with the prospect of significantly more expensive new cars is a direct result of the failure of the Government to honour the Brexit referendum.
“Not one of the 17 million plus votes for Brexit was that Great Britain should leave the EU because that was not on option on the ballot paper. The question was should the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland leave the EU and over 17 million people, in the biggest democratic vote in our history, said yes. That vote has never been honoured because the current Brexit deal keeps part of the UK, Northern Ireland, effectively in the EU, and the EU then use Northern Ireland, and the threat of divergence between NI and GB, to pressure GB to align with the EU as well.
“The only solution is for the whole UK to leave the EU so that rather than having a Northern Ireland Vehicle Approval Regime, determined by the EU, and a separate Great Britain Vehicle Approval Regime, which is then pressured to follow Northern Ireland to avoid divergence, we have a single UK Vehicle Approval Regime, set by the UK.
“By dividing the UK and keeping part of it in the EU, the EU effectively has the United Kingdom over a divergence barrel. We will never enjoy the full benefits of Brexit for Great Britain, let alone in Northern Ireland, until we come together and insist that the 27 states of the EU respect the territorial integrity of the UK.
“It is because of that imperative that just before recess I tabled a motion with eight other MPs proposing that the latest GB Vehicle Approval Regulations (the Road Vehicles (Type-Approval) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025, No. 661) be annulled. We have to call time on allowing the EU to divide us, making the laws for part of the UK and then using this to them set the laws for the whole UK.”
Tice said 'Starmer is deliberately handcuffing our car industry'
| PABreaking down the cost to the consumer
According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT): "Over 779,584 cars, 125,649 commercial vehicles and 1.58million engines were built in the UK in 2024. Eight out of 10 cars produced in the UK are exported overseas to more than 140 markets worldwide."
The SMMT's report for 2024 said: "Automotive-related manufacturing contributes £93billion turnover and £22billion value added to the UK economy, and typically invest around £4billion each year in R&D.
"With more than 198,000 people employed in manufacturing and some 813,000 in total across the wider automotive industry, we account for 12 per cent of total UK export goods, generating £47billion of trade."
Referencing Northern Ireland, which is already under EU law, car industry representatives told the Assembly's Committee that abiding by just three new sets of regulations would add £4,000 to the cost of a new vehicle.
Leigh Evans, Executive Chairman of Stand for Our Sovereignty, told GB News: "Starmer has taken the UK's car industry, slammed it into reverse, and put his foot hard down on the accelerator.
"This amounts to EU membership in all but name - with EU-level prices, a Brexit reversal done without a referendum or democratic mandate. This is only going to get worse."
GB News has approached the DfT for comment.