A plan published by a right-wing thinktank and backed by prominent Tories is calling for key safety and environmental laws to be ditched as part of a ‘hard’ Brexit.

The Institute of Economic Affairs report, ‘Plan A+: Creating a prosperous post-Brexit UK’, was unveiled this week by former Brexit secretary David Davis and leading Tory Leave campaigner Jacob Rees-Mogg, and has been backed by ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

The report sidesteps the necessary role of EU regulation in protecting workers and consumers, instead saying it “saddles the UK with regulations that protect large incumbent businesses from competition, harming innovation and reducing efficiency.”

The IEA singles out environmental laws and the REACH chemicals regulations for criticism, with Davis claiming at the launch: “There is a tremendous case study in here of the reach the chemical negotiators, the chemical standards, and how even the Commission recognises that it is ineffective and bad.”

But the IEA report reserves some of its most scathing attacks for working time rules. “The UK has since embraced a number of labour policies which go well beyond what can be seen to be reasonable protections of workers,” it claims, identifying the working time rules as an example of “overly prescriptive regulation that goes beyond what are necessary for worker protection.”

The union GMB said removing this law would mean 7 million workers could lose rights to paid holidays, with even more workers in a position where they could “be forced by bosses to work weeks longer than 48 hours.” Others could lose the right to lunch and rest breaks, GMB added, and night workers could lose some health and safety protections. Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, commented: “The prime minister needs to come our clearly rebuking this report. She promised that people’s working rights would be protected after Brexit but she has become a hostage to the extremists in her own party.”