What happens to vital consumer protections after Brexit?

I disagree with you, John, for the following reasons.
1) The UK tried three times to join the EEC and were successful at the third attempt in 1973. There was a referendum in 1975 as to whether we wished to continue, and the vote in favour of staying in the EEC was 67.2% (not 60%) with 32.8% against.
2) I am not sure that you can claim that ‘most ordinary voters’ saw the main reason for joining the EU as simply having access to a market of goods. There were a number of reasons, including valuing the EEC as a way of bringing countries together economically and politically to end the wars between them: this was the original aim when the European Coal and Steel Community was set up in 1950. This was also one of the reasons articulated by the Remain campaign which was important to many of us.
3) We are not a ‘virtual colony’ but one of the most powerful countries in the EU with a voice to which others have listened. We have negotiated a number of ‘opt-outs’ for the UK where we disagreed with the way things were done. We had the structures available to us within the EU to limit immigration if we had chosen to use them – but our governments did not make that choice.
4) The EU is not interested in ‘conquering us’ but in working with us. When it comes to the history of the last few centuries, Britain has done plenty of conquering of other countries itself, so we are by no means squeaky clean in this regard. Indeed, we have ‘conquered’ more countries than the rest of the EU put together.
5) We did not vote ‘clearly’ to leave the EU two years ago. The vote was very close. In many countries, such a narrow majority would not be regarded as definitive. Only 37% of those eligible to vote, voted to leave the EU. Scotland and Northern Ireland voters voted to remain. Over 700,000 British citizens who live in Europe as part of our EU right to do so were not even given the chance to vote.
I realise you may not agree with me, and I would always uphold your right to do so.

The Electorate of this Country were lied to on at least two occasions by both main political parties by Harold Wilson, Ted Heath and others. Labour party workers were being misled right up to the night of one election over the Europe issue.

People at the time voted for entry to a Common Market covering trade in the main at the time not a Political Union and not a Common Currency. Charles De Gaulle continually resisted British attempts to become a member because he suspected that the British would never rest comfortably with what Jacque Delors was about to foist on the existing countries of the Union.
How right he was, the short termist remainers need to start looking well beyond the next generation and think about what would become of this Nation in fifty-one hundred years time. Those generations would be asking why we were so shortsighted to remain aligned to an Organisation run without accountability to the people of Europe.
Our original entry to Europe has always been based on a series of lies perpetrated by Politicians across the board, it continues now and it is to be hoped that the Referendum vote will once and for all be respected even at this late stage.

Company that quality controls oncology drugs manufactured in India and then distributes them around Britain and Europe is moving it’s activities to Portugal. 50 jobs will go, drugs will have to be imported.

We are in our 80’s, and consider that our standards of living were greatly improved by being members of the EU. Yes, there will always be laws that we don’t like – but isn’t that also the case with a number of our UK based laws? For ourselves, we would like to see Brexit collapse and things return to what we think of as “normal”. I cannot see any future in departing from what is factual inside the EU, and instead following a course based on fictional claims of alternative world markets waiting for us to join them.
People of the EU countries are our nearest natural cousins, and I find it difficult to understand why half of the UK people are dissatisfied with the standards and stability we enjoy by being a member state of the EU.

I am coming into this debate 3 months after the last entry and ironically we should have already left but are again in limbo awaiting a new prime minister.Most of the arguments for remaining in the EU have come from thinking everything will remain the same.My main concern is that is not staying the same but more and more about the federalisation of Europe and only about expanding trade for a few.Quite a number of countries are in a very poor economic state,others are starting to go into recession.Then most of the countries admitted since the end of the nineties have extremely poor economies hence the influx to the UK where minimum wage jobs seem desirable compared to local earning ability.For some reason the UK was forced to change its child benefit rules whereby a UK citizen cannot claim for a child not resident in their household but an EU citizen can claim for a child living in their home country.but no check is made that a child benefit is not already paid in their home country.Receiving child benefit then qualifies the recipient for in work benfits like child and working tax credit and also even without children housing benefit.Do any of our UK nationals get similar in say Poland, Italy or Greece etc? There are other countries lined up to join also not of economic equality.
People living in Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland feel they do not get a proper voice at Westminster now and I would now add Northern England to that,so our voice in the EU will become even more diluted the bigger it gets.Also since the funds we send are then redistributed to poorer areas, by comparison Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will not be getting much, if anything ,compared to more recent joiners.I notice too that richer countries like Norway and Switzerland are not clamouring to become full EU members so if it was that good they would have been warmly welcomed had they wished to join..
We also suffer from governments who have not thought through the consequences on infrastructure by large influxes of population.They are aided and abetted by big business because they want to use cheap labour and also not encouraging the training of upcoming generations in skills we need because of sourcing ready trained EU staff.
I could go on further as there is more in the pipeline but not many EU countries including us(except maybe international conglomerates) will derive much benefit.
If there was strong evidence of reform going on such as reviewing for a start the excessive and wasteful expenditure involved by moving bases every month from Brussels to Strasbourg and back over 3 years ago there would not been a need for a referendum.
We managed before the Common Market we will manage again.Delay is now the biggest concern for businesses as contracts cannot be awarded or signed until leave date is actually happening.