Why did the Tories scrap Amendment 58?

The ever deceptive Tories have continually tried to create the fiction that they have no intention of using Brexit as a Trojan Horse to launch ideologically driven attacks on workers' rights, consumer standards, equal rights legislation, environmental protections, animal welfare laws and the like.

On the evening of November 15th 2017 they proved these promises to be outright lies when they voted against Labour's amendment to add Clause 58 to the EU withdrawal bill.

All Clause 58 sought to do was prevent the Tory-DUP government from bypassing parliament in order to revoke EU derived workers' rights, equal rights, workplace safety legislation, consumer protections, and environmental standards (see image).

The amendment sought to ensure that if the government wants to revoke any of these rights and standards, they must submit legislation to parliament in order to do it, rather than just using Brexit as an excuse to scrap them on the sly with no democratic scrutiny whatever.

The Tories came together to defeat the amendment to add Clause 58 to the EU Withdrawal Bill by 311 votes to 299.

This raises the obvious question of why they would defeat an amendment that does nothing other than ensure that they have to seek democratic approval before scrapping our rights and standards, unless they're planning to scrap our rights and standards.

There's no way the Tory vote against Clause 58 makes any sense whatever unless they're plotting to do exactly what they've repeatedly assured the British that they're not planning to do.

The only possible reason for their vote against Clause 58 is that it would have prevented them from using archaic Henry VIII powers so that Tory ministers can trash our workers' rights and standards on the sly, with no parliamentary scrutiny of what they're doing.

The Tories couldn't really have given a clearer indication of their intention to use Brexit as an excuse to create a bonfire of workers' rights, consumer protections, and environmental laws, yet the mainstream media refused to explain the true significance of this Clause 58 defeat, and millions of people remain utterly complacent about the real intentions of the hard-right Tory Brexiteers who are now dictating Theresa May's every move.

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