Thousands of EU laws on everything from workers’ rights to the environment are to be scrapped or replaced with UK equivalents in a new plan.

Details of the planned Great Repeal Bill have been published – the day after the UK officially began the two year process of leaving the EU.

Ministers need to “copy and paste” EU laws into UK law to avoid a legal “black hole” when Brexit happens.

It comes as ministers reject claims of a row with the EU over future security.

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In a statement to MPs, Brexit Secretary David Davis said the repeal bill would “provide clarity and certainty for businesses and consumers on the day we leave the EU”.

He said it would allow businesses to continue operating “knowing the rules have not changed overnight” and ensure there was “no sudden change” to individual rights.

Workers rights, environmental protection and consumer rights currently enshrined in EU laws would continue as before when Britain left, he added.

But the UK Parliament, and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, would then be able to amend or scrap these laws without EU consent.

The bill will also “end the supremacy” of EU law in the UK, “delivering” on the result of last year’s referendum, he added.

“Our laws will then be made in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and interpreted not by judges in Luxembourg but by judges across the United Kingdom,” he told MPs.

‘A unique challenge’

The Great Repeal Bill, which Theresa May has said will make the UK an “independent, sovereign nation”, would:

• Repeal the European Communities Act, which says EU law is supreme to the UK’s
• Ensure the UK leaves the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice
• Transpose existing EU legislation into domestic UK law
• It would come into force the day the UK leaves the EU
• The Commons library anticipates it will be “one of the largest legislative projects ever undertaken in the UK”
• A Lords committee described it as a “unique challenge”, with EU law having accumulated over decades

Read more: A guide to the Great Repeal Bill

Mr Davis earlier hit back at claims the UK was trying to “blackmail” the EU by raising security issues ahead of Brexit talks.

‘Not a threat’

In her letter on Wednesday triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, Theresa May suggested cooperation with the EU on the fight against crime and terror was at risk if Britain did not agree an overall Brexit deal within the two year time limit.

The prime minister’s words sparked an angry reaction from some EU officials who said security was too important to be used as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.

But Brexit Secretary David Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “this is not a threat”.

“This is a statement of the fact that this will be harmful for both of us… if we don’t get a deal. It’s an argument for having a deal.”

He added: “We’re after a fully comprehensive deal that covers trade, covers security, covers all the aspects of our existing relationship and tries to preserve as much of the benefits for everybody as we can.”

Mr Davis, who will be Britain’s chief negotiator in Brussels, said the rights of British expats would the first priority in Brexit talks.

He said Britain had a “moral duty” to end the uncertainty facing Britons living in the EU – and EU citizens living in the UK – as it was not their fault that Britain had voted to leave.

The UK also wanted “to deal with the Northern Ireland border situation early as well”, he added.

He said the “fear” that the EU would punish Britain for leaving, in order to deter other countries from going down the same route, “has reduced” although it had not disappeared altogether.

But he admitted that Britain was in dispute with EU officials over its demand for parallel talks on the terms of Britain’s exit and a deal on trade.

The EU wants to sort out an exit deal – including how much the UK might have to pay to cover its “existing obligations” – before turning to a future trade arrangement but Mr Davis said Britain wanted to “look at the whole package together”.

Over the past 44 years, thousands of rules and directives have been incorporated into British law from Brussels.

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The prime minister has vowed to “consult fully on which powers should reside in Westminster and which should be devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”.

She has said that the process will lead to a “significant increase in the decision-making power of each devolved administration”.

The Scottish Parliament will get its own vote on the repeal bill and the UK government is working on the basis that it will need the consent of MSPs to get it through.

Trade union group the TUC urged the government to ensure the repeal bill was used to maintain all existing EU workers’ protections.

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn said his party would be holding the government to account “all the way through” the exit process, promising to “speak for the entire country”.

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