Mulholland slams BBPA campaign
Outspoken MP and anti-beer tie campaigner Greg Mulholland has launched a broadside at the British Beer & Pub Association's new campaign backing pubs - while admitting that he agrees with much of its aims.
The Lib Dem MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group said the the 'I'm Backing The Pub' campaign and manifesto, which gets underway in Westminster tonight, did not include all the issues closing pubs, such as the way he claims pub companies have "skewed and abused the tied systems".
Launched together with the Society of Independent Brewers, the campaign manifesto - "The life and soul of Britain's communities" - calls for measures to help the pub trade including a cut in beer duty to its previous level when the VAT rate returns to 17.5 per cent in the New Year, and the end of the duty escalator.
"There is a lot in this manifesto that the Save The Pub Group would agree with and are already campaigning for and we will continue to work with all organisations to lobby for change," said Mulholland.
"Beer duty is too high and I have already tabled a motion calling for it to be reduced when VAT goes back up, supermarket pricing needs to be tackled and planning law must change to protect pubs, including those being closed in their hundreds by BBPA members.
"But it is simply dishonest to suggest that the tied system as operated by some companies, which has been shown to be unfair and unsustainable, is not a factor in the closure of the 50 pubs a week closing. It blatantly is and communities up and down the country know it."
Mulholland also questioned why the BBPA campaign was being launched on a Thursday evening, when most MPs would have left London for their constituencies.
"Why do BBPA, who are increasingly isolated as the voice of the big Pubcos and breweries, think that them launching another partial campaign now will help?" thundered the MP.
"Overall you have to question if this is an attempt to divert attention from the latest BEC investigation and CAMRA's attempts to lobby Ministers to reform the tie."
