The Chancellor of the Exchequer has scrapped Labour’s plans to increase beer duty in today’s Budget, and instead cut it by a penny, meaning beer will be 1p per pint cheaper after Sunday night – 4p per pint cheaper than it would have been under Labour.
Local MP David Mundell welcomed the news, saying: ‘Labour increased beer duty by 60 per cent and left our pubs fighting for survival.
‘We’ve not only scrapped Labour’s planned increase – we’ve actually cut it.
‘It’s great for beer-drinkers, it’s great for breweries, and it’s great for Scotland’s 4,875 pubs and especially for a number of real local pubs in this part of the world. I have always said that part of the solution to drink related problems is encouraging more people back into our pubs and away from cheap supermarket booze.”