Pro-pub MP: focus on tax, not tie

Vice chairman of the All-Party Save the Pub Group has urged fellow members to spend more time fighting for cuts in beer tax rather than focusing on the beer tie.

The group is chaired by pubco critic Greg Mulholland MP. Vice chair Eric Illsley, parliamentary adviser to the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, said the group was spending too much time challenging the beer tie.

"The beer tie appears to have become the central issue.

"The All-Party Group is looking inwards at the pubcos and perhaps not looking hard enough at tax and duty," he told the FLVA conference in Blackpool.

"We want to hold the Government to account for its alcohol policy and we should be putting more pressure on ministers," he added.

Illsley, MP for Barnsley Central, called for Chancellor Alistair Darling to "go easy" as Parliament waited for his pre-Budget report in a few weeks' time.

"This will give us an idea of what we can expect on duty but bearing in mind the country's difficulties its unlikely he will be giving much away," he conceded.

Illsley joined delegates in condemning "loss leader" selling tactics of the supermarkets.

"The Government does not seem to accept its supermarket prices which are causing these problems (binge drinking and pre-loading)."

Lee Le Clercq, northern secretary of the British Beer & Pub Association, said cheap supermarket drink was closing down pubs all over the country.

Illsley replied: "They do not seem to care who they put out of business as a result."