Starmer’s Silent Brexit Betrayal: How the REUL Act Fuels Austerity, Corporate Greed, and Jobless Freeports

It’s the scandal nobody’s talking about.

Starmer’s Brexit Blindspot: The REUL Act’s Corporate Coup is Bleeding Britain Dry

It’s the Brexit law nobody talks about, and Keir Starmer’s Labour is banking on you not noticing. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL Act) is a corporate wet dream, quietly dismantling protections for workers, the environment, and food safety to fatten profits in Freeports and Special Economic Zones (SEZs). While Rachel Reeves swings the austerity axe at disabled people and families, this obscure Act—buried in Brexit’s shadow—fuels a £19.78 billion corporate heist that’s delivered just 22,067 new jobs at £896,246 each. The mainstream media (MSM)? Silent, as always, when BlackRock and Palantir are cashing in. Welcome to Starmer’s Britain, where “change” means selling workers down the river.

The REUL Act: A Corporate Carve-Up in Brexit Clothing

Passed on June 29, 2023, the REUL Act was sold as Brexit’s final act: scrapping EU laws to “take back control.” The reality? It’s a deregulatory juggernaut. By December 2023, it axed 600 EU-derived laws, from pesticide controls to maternity rights, and rebranded the rest as “assimilated law,” free from EU oversight. Until June 2026, ministers can rewrite these laws with barely a nod to Parliament, targeting food safety (e.g., food labelling), environmental protections (e.g., Habitats Regulations), and employment rights (e.g., TUPE, Working Time Directive).

The Explanatory Notes on legislation.gov.uk, penned by the Department for Business and Trade, admit the goal: “remove the special status of retained EU law” for “business flexibility.” Translation? Make life easier for corporations, not workers. Lords debates in 2023, buried in Hansard, warned of risks to 44 animal welfare laws and women’s rights, with Pregnant Then Screwed and the TUC calling it a “significant threat.” Legal eagle George Peretz KC slammed its “anti-democratic” powers, yet Starmer’s Labour hasn’t touched it. Why? Because it’s the perfect tool for their corporate-friendly Freeport fantasy.

Freeports and SEZs: £896,246 Per Job, Most Just Moved

Freeports and SEZs were meant to “level up” forgotten towns like Teesside and the Firth of Forth. Instead, they’re taxpayer-funded flops. By 2024, the UK’s 12 Freeports and 74 SEZs cost £19.78 billion but created only 22,067 new jobs—£896,246 each, 26 times the UK median salary of £34,963. The kicker? 66% of Freeport jobs (3,733 of 5,600) and 80% of SEZ jobs (80,000 of 100,000) were displaced, just shifted to snag tax breaks. England’s Freeports missed job targets by 92% (4,124 of 53,333), Scotland by 77% (1,857 of 8,000), and Wales by 94%. Plans to spend £64 billion by 2048 aim for 68,334 new jobs, with 711,163 of 919,519 promised jobs displaced.

The REUL Act is the enabler. Its Explanatory Notes boast of “simplifying” regulations, letting Freeports dodge food safety checks, pollute with weaker environmental rules, and exploit workers with diluted labor protections. BlackRock, owning 80% of Felixstowe, Harwich, and Thamesport Freeports for $22.8 billion, laughs all the way to the bank. In Teesside, NE Security Ltd, tied to organised crime, monitors goods with zero oversight—a deregulatory disaster.I call it a “corporate carve-up,” Thatcher and Cameron’s Freeports failed for the same reasons: they came up against the EU’s strict regulations that prohibit State aid as profit motive for corporations. This is why Sunak and Truss hastily resurrected free zones while adding dozens more after Brexit.

Starmer and Reeves: Austerity Meets Corporate Complicity

Starmer promised a new dawn, but he’s wielding the REUL Act like a Tory. Labour’s welfare cuts, led by Reeves and Liz Kendall, aim to save £5 billion by 2030, slashing PIP for disabled people. In May 2025, 42 Labour MPs rebelled, calling it “the biggest attack on the welfare state since Osborne” in a Guardian letter. Reeves’ £22 billion “black hole” excuse fuels austerity, while the £19.78 billion squandered on Freeports/SEZs could have funded 565,723 workers for a year or scrapped the two-child benefit cap.