Fears have been raised that the Council of Ministers will be given too much power under the Brexit bill.

On Tuesday, the European Union and Trade Bill was granted a second reading.

In other words its principle was approved, after Chief Minister Howard Quayle successfully sought to suspend procedures to allow two readings to take place in one day.

Mr Quayle insisted the urgency was because of the need to ensure the enabling legislation was in place by the time the UK was due to leave the EU on March 29, at which point the Isle of Man’s formal relationship with the EU would end.

Without the bill becoming law, all EU legislation that currently applies to the island under the Protocol 3 arrangement would no longer have effect.

’This is the position whether or not there is a deal between the UK and the EU,’ he warned.

But Liberal Vannin leader Kate Beecroft expressed her disquiet at the Bill - she was the only MHK to vote against a second reading.

She said: ’It gives the Council of Ministers too much power and takes it away from this house, which is where primary legislation should stand.’

Her concern centred on provisions within the bill that would enable the Council of Ministers to introduce or remove laws by seeking Tynwald approval rather than going through the normal legislative process of scrutiny in the House of Keys and Legislative Council.

Mr Quayle argued that the volume of laws that would need to be re-applied, re-written or withdrawn after Brexit meant it would be impractical to use the normal processes.

He said Tynwald would act as a backstop in scrutinising any changes and would still have the power to intervene.

amendments

The Chief Minister, who revealed that the government would have to bring forward some amendments to its own legislation in two weeks’ time, committed to introducing ’sunset’ provisions so that some decisions made under the bill would have to be reviewed after a certain time.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) agreed with Mrs Beecroft that major law changes should always be subject to primary legislation - going through both branches of Tynwald, with several stages of scrutiny - rather than via secondary legislation that is usually dealt with at a single Tynwald sitting.

And he questioned the argument that Tynwald would give adequate scrutiny. He said over the past two years, there had been 531 statutory documents placed before Tynwald and only two rejected - before being brought back in a different form.

’Tynwald has not rejected a single piece of government policy or legislation,’ he said.

Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) acknowledged the misgivings but said: ’We don’t know where we are going. We do not know how we will get there and we do not know where are starting from.

’In that situation, we need a pragmatic approach.’

Members voted 17-3 to suspend standing orders and allow the second reading to take place. With acting Speaker Chris Robertshaw joining Mrs Beecroft and Mr Hooper in opposition.

They then voted 19-1 in favour of the second reading.

The detailed scrutiny of the bill, at the clauses stage, is now expected to take place on November 6.