THE Tories will be performing an "all-out attack" on devolution if the retained EU law bill is passed, the SNP's Cabinet Office spokesperson has said.
The bill - which seeks to revoke more 2400 pieces of EU legislation that were included in the UK statute book at the end of the Brexit transition period - is set to come before the House on Tuesday, October 25.
But launching a Westminster Hall debate on the issue on Wednesday, SNP MP Brendan O'Hara warned the piece of legislation would undermine the powers of the Scottish Parliament in areas such as environmental health, food standards and animal welfare.
He said the bill would allow Westminster to override Holyrood in these devolved areas.
O'Hara said: "It [the bill] is an ideological, deregulatory race to the bottom which will do enormous damage to our society and our economy.
"Under this bill, and with the UK Internal Markets Act already in place, any legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament could be completely undermined by the government here in Westminster, even in matters which are wholly devolved.
"I'll give a few examples. In the area of food standards, if the Scottish Parliament decides that we will remain aligned to the EU and we will ban the sale of chlorinated chicken, but this place [Westminster] decides that cheap imported, chlorine-washed chicken is acceptable, then there’s almost nothing the Scottish Parliament can do to stop lorry loads of chlorinated poultry appearing on our supermarket shelves."
Following the debate, he accused the Tory government of a "blatant powergrab".
O'Hara added: "We face an all-out attack on Scotland's democratic parliament in the form of a blatant powergrab, and with it a stripping back of vital regulations that have protected everything from Scottish food standards to workers rights for over 50 years.
"Scotland should not be forced to accept the reality that Westminster can simply drag us under and completely undermine our Parliament in Edinburgh, but without the full powers of independence that is exactly what will continue to happen.
“Without a clean break from Westminster, chlorinated chicken won’t be the only thing leaving a bad taste in people's mouths as the drive to undermine Scotland continues.
"The only way to keep Scotland safe is to become an independent country."
The introduction of the retained EU law bill risks removing restrictions on the use of decontaminants on meat, such as the chlorine washes on chicken and businesses’ minimum hygiene standards.
It could also jeopardise protections in relation to the safety and compositional standards of baby foods.
Last month, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson wrote to Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg regarding his deep concern at the wholesale "sun-setting" of retained EU law by December 31 next year.
He warned it “carries an unacceptably high risk that vital law, on which the smooth functioning of sectors of the economy and society depends, simply drops off the UK statute book” and pressed the UK Government to reconsider the bill and its implications for the devolved governments.
