Ministers are facing a clash with opposition and Conservative MPs over their plans to scrap EU-era laws copied over to UK law after Brexit.

One of the supposed ‘benefits’ of Brexit was the ‘bonfire of Brussels red-tape‘ which was promised by libertarian Brexiteers. Two weeks into the administration of Liz Truss, the new government announced that they were planning to revoke 570 environmental laws which, in order to continue environmental protections, were rolled over from EU law after Brexit.

Brussels official says UK has ‘non-regression obligation’ to protect waters as part of trade deal.

The UK is threatening health and marine life on the French coast by allowing raw sewage to be dumped in the Channel and North Sea, say three Euro MPs.

"You have to blame the government for this whole sorry mess. The industry is out of control and it's our rivers and beaches that are picking up the tab for that profiteering."

Water companies in the UK have been accused of failing to monitor the amount of sewage pumped into the sea at popular beaches across the country.

"Just 25 years ago one in four British beaches were too dirty to swim in. Now 95 per cent of our beaches have a clean bill of health."

Long-awaited new sea defences in Sidmouth are set to cost an extra £5million. / Estimates for the scheme have soared from £14million to £19million – with rocketing material and diesel prices, Brexit and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine blamed for the rise.

Across the world, there is incomprehension at what we have done to ourselves.

Filth spewing into a picturesque stretch of U.K. coastline is far from the image of post-Brexit Britain that Boris Johnson wants to portray.

Zac Goldsmith’s claims that Brexit could help the environment have been utterly demolished this week.

Huge sections of the UK coastline were too polluted for swimming until EU legal action forced the government to clean up.

The head of the Environment Agency has called for less rigorous measures to determine water quality in England’s rivers, lakes and beaches after Brexit – a move which would allow the government to classify more waterbodies as being at a high standard.

“Europe is setting new and ambitious standards, paving the way for the rest of the world.” / The European parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans.

20 sites fail safe bathing criteria stoking fears UK will once more be ‘dirty man of Europe’ after Brexit