Soft-drink loving Rishi Sunak is JEERED by drinkers as he pours pints at beer festival after increasing alcohol duty on wine and spirits
- PM mocked as he poured a pint of stout at the Great British Beer Festival
- Major tax overhaul will see all booze taxed by its alcoholic strength
Rishi Sunak was heckled by drinkers at a beer festival today over a major shake-up in how booze is taxed.
The Prime Minister was mocked by a London pub landlord as he poured a pint of stout at the Great British Beer Festival after the new regime came into force.
The new system aims to encourage drinkers to cut back by bringing in one tax on all alcohol based on its strength, replacing a previous array of levies on different categories of wine, beer, spirits, and ciders.
Mr Sunak described the overhaul as ‘the most radical simplification of alcohol duties for over 140 years’, enabled by Britain’s exit from the EU. But he is facing attacks over increases on some stronger drinks like scotch whisky.
As he was pouring a pint of Black Dub stout at the stall in Olympia of the Wensleydale brewery, which operates from his Richmond constituency, one onlooker, Wimbledon publican Rudi Keyser, called out: ‘Prime Minister, oh the irony that you’re raising alcohol duty on the day that you’re pulling a pint.’
Another man shouted at the teetotal Tory leader, who is famously a fan of carbonated soft drinks: ‘Prime Minister, it’s not Coca Cola.’
As he was pouring a pint of Black Dub stout at the stall in Olympia of the Wensleydale brewery, which operates from his Richmond constituency, one onlooker called out: ‘Prime Minister, oh the irony that you’re raising alcohol duty on the day that you’re pulling a pint.’
The new system aims to encourage drinkers to cut back by bringing in one tax on all alcohol based on its strength, replacing a previous array of levies on different categories of wine, beer, spirits, and ciders. Mr Sunak described the overhaul as ‘the most radic
In March’s Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also announced that the freeze to alcohol duty would end on August 1 and increase by inflation, at 10.1%.
The increase will see duty rise by 44p on a bottle of wine, which when combined with VAT will mean consumers will pay an extra 53p, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).
Duty on 18% cream sherry will go up from £2.98 to £3.85, with VAT adding up to an increase of more than £1 a bottle, while a bottle of port will go up by more than £1.50.
The total tax on a bottle of gin or vodka will go up by around 90p.
The Chancellor is cutting the duty charged on draught pints across the UK by 11p in August in a major boost for pubs and draught beer drinkers, which Mr Sunak hailed as beneficial to ‘thousands of businesses across the country’.
The Treasury has said that more than 38,000 UK pubs will benefit from tax relief that effectively freezes or cuts the alcohol duty on beer poured from tap from Tuesday.
READ MORE What the price of a pint pays for
However, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said brewers will pay 10.1% more tax on bottles and cans of beer from Tuesday, meaning tax will make up around 30% of the cost of a 500ml bottle.
Despite the draught freeze, the BBPA said the tax increase on packaged beer will add an extra £225 million of costs per year across the industry.
Scotch Whisky Association director of strategy Graeme Littlejohn said: ‘The 10.1 per cent duty increase is a hammer blow for distillers and consumers.
‘At a time when inflation has only just started to creep downwards, this tax increase will continue to fuel inflation and make it more difficult for the Scotch Whisky industry to invest in growth and job creation in Scotland and across the UK supply chain.
‘Rather than choosing to back an industry which the UK Government promised to support through the tax system, the Government has chosen to impose the largest duty increase in almost half a century, increasing the cost of every bottle of Scotch Whisky sold in the UK by almost a pound and taking the tax burden on the average priced bottle to 75 per cent.
‘In a further blow, distillers will now face a further competitive disadvantage in pubs, restaurants and bars by being unfairly excluded from tax breaks available to beer and cider.
‘Pubs and other on-trade businesses are about far more than beer and cider.’
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