The Conservatives are right to take credit for an EU policy to protect customers from credit card charges, the party’s chair has said, after widespread mockery of a party promotional tweet.
Hidden surcharges on using credit cards imposed by retailers, airlines and ticketing companies, which can be as high as 20% of the costs, will be banned after an EU–wide directive, but Brandon Lewis said it was right the Conservatives were able to promote the decision while the UK remained a member.
“We are fully represented and part of that process of making those decisions,” Lewis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, saying Conservative MEPs had backed the measure. “We’ve got to spread that message much more widely about the things we are doing.”
Theresa May’s official Twitter account tweeted that “we’ve banned credit card charges” on the day the new regulations were introduced, without mention of the European Union.
Guy Verhofstadt, the Brexit representative for the EU parliament, tweeted it was “refreshing to see so many embracing the benefits of EU legislation”, and the LibDem leader, Vince Cable, said the Tories were “claiming a popular policy that they had nothing to do with”.
The Labour MEP Clare Moody replied to May’s tweet saying: “No, you haven’t. This is an EU initiative from which all EU citizens will enjoy, not instigated by UK government.”
The ban on charges is among 2,557 new EU regulations and changes made since the UK vote to leave the EU in 2016, according to new data released by the House of Commons library.
The research, which was requested by the pro-EU campaign Best for Britain, found 1,602 new EU regulations had become applicable since June 24, 2016, though they may not all be applicable to the UK.
Lord Malloch-Brown, who chairs the group, said: “These regulations show, clearly, how intertwined we are with Europe. These rules are not the Brussels diktats that the few on the extreme right pretend they are. They are rules to protect us from rogue practices and dodgy businesses.
“I guess Lewis thinks ‘we’ is also MEPs, EU commission and 26 other governments. It’s just shameless and shows how the Tories try to use Europe for their own ends.”
Lewis, the former immigration minister who replaced Patrick McLoughlin as party chair, has been charged with re-engaging with the party’s dwindling membership, especially refortifying the party’s online war against Labour.
Over the weekend, Lewis said the party would distribute a “toolkit” of videos and GIFs for party activists to use online but told the Sunday Telegraph he was conscious that many Conservative supporters felt uncomfortable engaging in the debate online.