"Today’s fake news on Animal Welfare and the EU (Withdrawal) Bill votes.
No, the Conservatives did not vote that animals cannot feel pain. They said the exact opposite. Minister Dominic Raab said in the debate. "Animals will continue to be recognised as sentient under domestic law"
No MP believes animals do not have feelings, there is no argument about this principle (self-evidently animals are sentient and UK law already says that). A specific amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill was not deemed to be right, but the Government will deliver the same result using a different route.
The UK has higher animal standards than any other country in Europe and in the past four months have announced an Ivory ban, CCTV in slaughter houses, increased the maximum sentence for animal cruelty and are banning microbeads. EU law is no panacea: you can keep animal’s in unspeakably cruel conditions without breaking a single EU law.
On 18th October, I met with Greener UK (thirteen of the UK’s leading environmental NGO’s have come together to form Greener UK), to discuss this issue and how we can enhance and improve animal welfare following Brexit. All the MP’s in attendance felt this could best be achieved with separate legislation – not via amendments to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill."