A former Tory government minister has been ridiculed on social media after tweeting an article asserting that the EU will force the UK to join the eurozone after 2020 if it remains a member – a claim that is demonstrably false.
Former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey, who resigned from PM Theresa May’s government in November over Brexit, posted a now-deleted tweet with a link to a 2014 Daily Telegraph piece titled: “After 2020, all EU members will have to adopt the euro.”
Are the public aware of this? And the many other things the EU has planned for its member states after 2020? #trust #WatchOut
McVey has ostensibly tried to gloss over the incident with a follow-up tweet noting that not everyone agreed with the article she posted. A number of journalists have slammed the pro-Brexit Tory MP for Tatton for not apologizing after making the incorrect claim.
Sky News Europe Correspondent Mark Stone asked McVey whether she was really that “ignorant” or whether she had “knowingly” misled the public.
McVey endured a turbulent time as work and pensions minister. In July 2018, many opposition MPs called for her dismissal after she admitted making “inadvertently misleading” statements about Universal Credit – the government’s flagship social welfare reform policy – in parliament.