Tory forces Beer Escalator debate
By: JimOldfield
July 1st, 2012
The most serious threat to Britain’s brewery and pub trade finally gets an airing tomorrow (Monday) – when the hated ale tax, the Beer Escalator, is debated in Parliament.
But if the good news is that the scandalous tax rises are finally out in the open, the bad is that the MPs WON’T get a vote to abolish them this time around.
Beer ‘rebel’ Tory backbencher Gavin Williamson forced the early debate, even as the trade’s e-petition against the tax was rising to over 60,000 names, on the back of an industry Save Your Pint campaign intended to force the Government to confront the issue.
South Staffordshire MP Williamson, who has the Marston-run Banks’ Brewery in his constituency – is hoping fellow-Tory, Chancellor George Osborne will finally pledge to abolish the tax.
The Escalator was in fact introduced by the outgoing Labour Government, before the Coalition came to power – but despite heavy criticism, Osborne has refused to abandon it.
It automatically increases the tax on beer by two per cent OVER the rate of inflation, every year until 2014.
Since the tax came in, in 2008, the tax has rocketed by 42 per cent – including five per cent slapped on at the last budget.
A third of the cost of every pint now goes into the Chancellor’s purse – as Britons pay 13 times more beer tax than the Germans, 12 times more than the Spanish and nine times more than the French.
Williamson said: “We are all aware of the huge deficit that needs to be reduced as well as the major problem of binge drinking in the UK.
“However, I am seriously concerned that imposing even higher taxes on beer could have a crippling effect on the various pubs and breweries in South Staffordshire which contribute so much to the area both economically and socially.”
He is being supported in calls for reform by another angry Tory – neighbouring constituency MP Andrew Griffiths, who represents Burton-upon-Trent, the traditional home of British brewing.
Hand-Pumped links:
Save Your Pint homepage
E-petition
