Alistair Carmichael: “This is an utterly bizarre policy on the part of Europcar.”

Islanders deserve the same basic rights as anyone else in the UK — and I will keep making that point with companies and governments for as long as it is necessary.

There is no justification for islanders to be treated less favourably or subjected to unclear and unjustified requirements when accessing services on the mainland.

I am delighted that Europcar has apologised and that they have offered my constituents a full refund of the costs they incurred as a result of this error.

While this bizarre situation should never have been allowed to occur — and it really should not take the intervention of an MP to stop this sort of behaviour — if more companies could accept their mistakes with this sort of speed and good…