UK government to scrap European law protecting special habitats

Steart Marshes was created to compensate for the loss of habitat on the Severn estuary under the directive. Photograph: James Osmond/Alamy

Environment secretary George Eustice wants to tear up a key piece of European law that environmentalists say protects cherished habitats in the UK.

Eustice told MPs the Habitats Directive was in a list of laws he wanted to amend in the forthcoming Brexit freedoms bill designed to cut red tape, saying it was bureaucratic and fundamentally flawed on multiple levels.