Campbell: '24-hour licensing was wrong'

24-hour drinking has fuelled 'alcohol crisis', according to Alastair Campbell

Tony Blair's former spin doctor has urged David Cameron to reverse later pub openings which were introduced by the Labour Government under the Licensing Act in 2005.

In an interview with the Sunday Express, Alastair Campbell said the measure has created a 'frightening alcohol crisis' among the UK's middle classes and admitted his party “might have got it wrong” by introducing all-day licensing.

Campbell said it had simply increased the availability of cheaper supermarket alcohol and contributed to the closure of pubs where alcohol sales were better controlled.

Mr Campbell said the problem was now so deep that Mr Cameron, who last week described binge-drinking as one of the scandals of our society, should consider radical reforms.

These could include raising the legal age for drinking from 18 to 21, looking at minimum pricing or raising duties and restoring the traditional role of the pub.

He also said the Coalition could learn the lessons of Labour’s “successful” anti-smoking legislation, particularly around advertising.

Campbell, who has started drinking again after ten years, will front a BBC Panorama documentary, Britain’s Hidden Alcoholics, tomorrow night when new figures will show that thousands of Britons a year are dying of alcohol-related liver disease, with a major rise in the number of women victims.

The documentary features medical experts, including Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance.

Campbell says in the documentary: “I must admit that the Labour government I worked for might have contributed to our alcohol crisis.”

That decision was taken in 2005 after Mr Campbell had left Downing Street but he told the Sunday Express: “The idea had been around for a long time.

"We were trying to signal that we could change the culture but I never bought that because of this country’s history. When you think about Britain with the gin epidemic and other things, we are a drinking nation. I certainly articulated my views.”