BRITISH B&Bs could be cut loose from EU laws hindering them offering package deals – as Jacob Rees-Mogg plans to light a bonfire of red tape.
The Brexit Opportunities Minister yesterday revealed he is preparing to publish a hitlist of 1,500 Brussels regs still clamped on UK firms.
One due for the scrapheap is the Package Travel Directive that slaps small hotels with bundles of red tape if they also offer deals like theatre or dinner vouchers to guests.
Mr Rees-Mogg said the law was brought in to prevent “Carry On Abroad” disasters where holidaymakers get ripped off by cowboy packages.
But he said the EU law puts off small B&Bs “doing incredibly sensible and minor packages that are regulated as if full blown”.
Industry chiefs back axing the holiday reg and are in talks with ministers about ditching it.
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UK Hospitality boss Kate Nicholls said: “The EU rules on package travel stop a B&B selling a dinner at a local pub or tickets to a visitor attraction as part of a package.
“This piece of red tape was designed to protect those heading off on a package holiday but instead Brussels bureaucracy is holding back our small tourism businesses from offering value added services to tourists.
“We estimate stripping it back could generate over £2bn of value added activity in tourism – our 3rd largest export earner.”
Since being appointed in September Mr Rees-Mogg has been rooting out lingering EU laws that can be binned.
Earlier this year he urged Sun readers to write to him with which rules they want ditched – and they have been taking up the offer in droves.
Yesterday told an event at the Centre for Policy Studies: “I already have, and I have to publish in due course, a list of about 1,500 pieces of retained EU law.
“And then people can see them in all that technicolour glory, and see which ones can be got rid of.”
In a nod to freedom-loving President Ronald Reagan, Mr Rees-Mogg said the nine scariest words in the English language are “we need to remain in lockstep with the EU.”
