By Kate Devlin

Union leaders have accused right-wing Conservative MPs of targeting workers’ rights as they prepare to hijack the Brexit process.

Former Tory chairman Grant Shapps has launched plans to amend Prime Minister Theresa May's 'Great Repeal Bill', designed to incorporate European Union legislation into UK law.

Mr Shapps proposes a "sunset clause", in a bid to head off what he said could be the "Great Continuity Bill".

MPs could scrutinise EU law and remove "job-destroying clauses" before the five year sunset," he said.

The Tory backbencher said that the move would lead to a reduction in red tape.

But unions accused him of planning an attack on rights like paid holidays and parental leave.

The clause could force ministers to pick which laws to keep and which to repeal within five years, after which time they would cease to be in force.

Antonia Bance, the head of campaigns at the Trades Union Congress (TUC), warned that “this is how workers' rights come under threat”.

In the run up to the EU referendum campaigners claimed that powerful elements in the Brexit campaign wanted to strip away EU social protections for ordinary workers.

These included maternity and paternity leave, paid time off and equal treatment for part-time workers, they said.

Mr Shapps says that he himself voted Remain earlier this year but added that he was “more than happy to support (hard) Brexit”.

His comments also suggest that other rightwing Tory MPs are prepared to rebel over Mrs May’s pledges to protect workers’ rights.

Mr Shapps said: “From (Mrs May's) ideas about placing workers on corporate boards to suggestions that companies will be forced to list the proportion of foreign workers, it sounds like the kind of red tape we spent most of the last parliament trying to shred.

"That challenge helped to strip costs and overheads from business, yet whenever we hit EU legislation we had to retreat. Now there is a chance to fix this.”

Mrs May’s Great Repeal Bill was unveiled at last month's Conservative Party conference by the Prime Minister herself.

It will be included in the next Queen's Speech.

But Tory MPs now believe it will be a key battleground between MPs on both sides of the EU debate.

Getting the Bill through Westminster could cause difficulties for Mrs May, who has a working majority of just 16 in the Commons.

Meanwhile, a new survey shows that manufacturing orders for Scottish firms slipped in the third quarter of the year, amid continued political and economic uncertainty.

The latest CBI Scottish Industrial Trends Survey found that domestic and export orders fell in the three months to October, after a recovery in trading in July.

Employment fell again, after a brief rise in the last quarter, with another decline predicted over the next three months.

But firms expect new orders and export orders to increase in the next quarter as the pound continues to trade at near-historic lows, despite a rise in costs.

At the weekend a new analysis suggested that Mrs May could use the balance of trade to her advantage in talks with the remaining 27 EU countries.

A total of 22 of the 27 remaining EU members would face more tariffs on exports than UK firms, according to the think tank Civitas.

Meanwhile, pro-EU MPs have said that ministers must honour the pledge by Brexit campaigners to give an extra £350 million a week to the NHS.

More than 40 MPs have written to Chancellor Philip Hammond calling on him to signal that the money will be made available in next month's Autumn Statement.