The new Brexit secretary poses a ‘direct and immediate threat’ to workers’ rights and safety, GMB has warned.

Dominic Raab previously called for Britain to use negotiations with the European Union to scrap workers’ rights.

Raab, who was appointed to lead the UK’s negotiations to leave the EU after David Davis resigned last week, authored a paper calling for opt-outs from EU employment regulations, including those that guarantee employees time off and limit the number of hours staff can be made to work. He also opposed rules that give long-term agency workers the same rights as full-time staff, and those that stop people being sacked if their company changes owner.

In a 2011 report for the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies, Raab argued the UK’s Working Time Regulations, based on an EU directive, should be scrapped. These safety regulations restrict the number of hours an employee can be forced to work to 48 hours a week. They also guarantee at least one day off a week, a minimum of four weeks’ paid annual leave a year.

He wrote: “Britain should secure a total opt-out from the working time directive and scrap the UK regulations, ensuring that this costly, anti-jobs legislation cannot cause further damage to the economy.”

He added said it should be made easier for companies to sack “underperforming” employees.

Raab was also a co-author of the ‘Britannia Unchained’ manifesto produced by five Tory right-wingers in 2012. Calling for wholesale removal of employment protections, it added British people “are amongst the worst idlers in the world.”

Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, said: “Theresa May has appointed someone who think British workers are lazy and have too many rights and he has already published plans to slash vital rights from the minimum wage to rights for agency workers. The hard won rights of UK workers are already under serious threat in the post-Brexit landscape – basic things like not being forced to work 60 hours a week and being able to get home to see your family.”

He warned: “Dominic Raab’s appointment now poses a direct and immediate threat to working people in Britain.”