Rishi Sunak warns of increasing threat from Iran

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Rishi Sunak has been urged to use the UK’s post-Brexit freedoms to help “squeezed” British businesses during the Boxing Day sales this year. The Prime Minister, who campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union in 2016, recently sent Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to Edinburgh to unveil a series of measures which will help the city become more competitive post-Brexit. However, a new push by Axe The Card Tax campaigners appears to put greater focus on delivering Brexit dividends for retailers.

The group is calling on Mr Sunak’s Government to utilise the UK’s post-Brexit freedoms in a bid to clamp down on additional charges on card transactions, including interchange and scheme and processing fees.

The Axe The Card Tax campaign has claimed that Visa and Mastercard charge 0.57 percent on interchange and scheme and processing fees, with costs unevenly split between the payment processing corporations and banks.

Campaigners have also argued that scheme and processing fees soared by 600 percent since 2014, while interchange fees increased by around 500 percent for payments made by EU visitors in the UK.

The Coalition for a Digital Economy’s fintech policy lead Luke Kosky told Express.co.uk: “With consumer spending dipping and energy prices remaining high, retailers are feeling more squeezed than ever this Christmas.

“Yet card schemes continue to rake in huge profits whenever a credit or debit card is used.

“If we want to support and protect British businesses and use the freedoms Brexit afforded us, then we must axe the card tax.”

JUST IN: Brexit pushback as MPs defend the UK’s exit over economic woes

The latest plea comes after many Brits shunned high street Boxing Day sales last year amid fears of the then-prevalent Omicron variant. 

The Office for National Statistics has since revealed that “substantially more” sales took place online during this year’s lockdown-free summer compared to pre-Covid years.

The British Retail Consortium’s recent payment survey laid bare the full extent to which Brits have snubbed cash payments for card transactions.

It found that card payments accounted for around 90 percent of all transactions in 2021. 

Ex-Tory and UKIP MEP David Campbell-Bannerman appeared to voice his support for cutting back on EU red tape.

He told Express.co.uk: “Now we are free of the EU single market, we are free to cut excessive bank fees on credit cards.”

Mr Campbell-Bannerman added: “We now have the Brexit freedom to set our own bank charges, out of the EU’s malign and over-the-top controls.

“It is high time we took advantage of this great opportunity.”

However, interchange rates and processing fees have proven to be a point of contention between the Axe The Card Tax campaign and a leading payment-processing corporation.

Mastercard stressed it does not receive interchange rates, which are regulated, and argued its 6p fee for a £50 transaction “offers UK retailers one of the lowest cost and safest ways to accept a payment”.

They also claimed that several other entities without cost flows to Mastercard continue to contribute to the total cost, including the card issuing bank, shop’s bank, payment service providers and terminal providers. 

In direct response to the Axe The Card Tax campaign, Mastercard said it “doesn’t recognise” the 600 percent figure in the leaflet.

DON’T MISS:
Boris may help Tories tackle ‘coalition from Hell’ [REVEALED]
Rwanda policy slammed by Ben Habib as ‘Tory project stuck in the mud’ [INSIGHT]
Sunak slashes Starmer’s lead in massive swing to Tories [SPOTLIGHT]

A spokesperson from Mastercard told Express.co.uk: “British consumers have embraced electronic payments, using them every day to buy and do what they need easily, safely – and with better protection than any other form of payment.

“As a result, the number of transactions has naturally increased, as businesses increasingly choose to accept cards because they improve sales and help to tackle fraud.

“We simply don’t recognise these overblown claims of the BRC. Mastercard offers UK retailers one of the lowest cost and safest ways to accept a payment.

“On a typical £50 sale, Mastercard’s fee is just 6p and this allows us to provide the services our customers can rely on. 

“Without electronic payments, millions of consumers can’t make payments and businesses won’t make sales.”

Express.co.uk has also approached the Treasury and Visa for comment.

Source: Read Full Article