Former Tory minister Michael Portillo has argued the industry should give up fighting on alcohol tax as the government is "addicted" to raising revenue through duty hikes.
Speaking at the British Beer & Pub Association's first annual dinner last night, Portillo said it was a "pipe dream" to imagine the government will exercise restraint on alcohol tax.
"It's not so much that the population is addicted to alcohol, rather the government is addicted to alcohol and the duty that comes from it," he told the 500 industry guests at London's Park Lane Hilton.
"You will not persuade them to cut taxes."
Instead, the MP-turned-broadcaster, who spoke candidly about his embarassing election defeat in 1997, identified a number of "opportunities" the industry had to engage with the new coalition.
Portillo suggested the pub was regarded by the government as an "essential service" in community life and fitted in to the idea of the Big Society.
"There's an enormous opportunity for you to help them write the blank pages of policy," he said.
The industry should also be targeting think tanks, he said, as the government will be looking to these groups for ideas.
"People like you should be influencing what the think tanks are saying," he said.
Earlier BBPA chairman Ralph Findlay branded the idea that pubs were the main culprits in problems associated with more liberal licensing laws as "nonsense".
He also highlighted the pressures pubs faced from hikes in tax. "Supermarkets are effective at resisting...when duty goes up, but pubs have no such choice," he said. "The duty escalator is an anti-pub tax."
Findlay also called on the government to do more to recognise the amount of jobs the industry provides.
"Instead of looking at increasing taxes, you should be looking at reducing the barriers to success," he said.