BBPA to lobby would-be MPs
The British Beer & Pub Association is to lobby scores of prospective parliamentary candidates in the run-up to the general election, the association has revealed.
Candidates in key marginal seats expected to become MPs next year have been identified and 28 Conservative hopefuls have already agreed to attend a dinner at next week's party conference in Manchester.
The move is part of the BBPA's move to counter a wave of soundbite politics expected in the run-up to the polls next year.
Communications director Mark Hastings said the election agenda would be set by knee jerk press and TV announcements.
"We have to react and answer these as they arise and turn them on their head," Hastings told delegates at a BBPA forum at Stoke-on-Trent.
He said the message to the election candidates would be that pubs can be part of the solution to binge drinking not part of the problem.
Hastings said he believed the trade's message was slowly getting across with critics increasingly talking about supermarkets and pre-loading rather than laying the blame at the door of pubs.
Earlier association chief executive Brigid Simmonds said the they would seek to make it clear to Government that "we are a responsible industry."
"We need to influence debate on unnecessary legislation and promote good beer and retailing practice.
"We want to influence a proportionate and targeted Government alcohol strategy by generating innovative solutions to alcohol issues.
"And we want to make it clear to Government that we are a responsible industry and champion the social and economic benefits of pubs," she said.
Simmonds reminded delegates that the industry contributed £2.8bn to the UK economy with one pub injecting an average of £80,000 per year into its local economy.
