Attendees to the No, Low, Mid London Summit last month heard from Tonia Antoniazzi MP for Gower in Wales and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Beer talk about the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England and how the low & no sector fits in.
Talking to Lucky Saint founder Luke Boase, Antoniazzi said: “Keep banging on about it. Keep going. You are producing low & no alcohol for so many people and it’s completely changed the face of drinking in a positive manner.”
When quizzed on how low & no alcohol producers can have their say to the Government at the event in Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, Waterloo, London, Antoniazzi said: “Invite your MP to see what you do. This gives you the opportunity to have a conversation and for you to tell them how your business is growing and for them to be seen and be supportive.”
She added Small Business Saturday coming up in December gives an opportunity to show off what you do and if an MP doesn’t reply… “you should follow up with a phone call to their office to say ‘I sent an invite and we’d really like Tonia to come out to see what we’re doing’. Or you could find out when they’ve got a surgery where you can tell them what your concerns may be or what parliamentary levers you’d like them to press”.
“And the good thing about being in an all-party parliamentary group is it means all political parties are working together to achieve the same goal.”
An opportunity
On the subject of the Government’s Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England – which was published in July this year – that sets out what Westminster wants to achieve in the next decade, Antoniazzi questioned whether the consultation for this was over now said ‘not that I’m aware’.
“Hence this an opportunity for a Member of Parliament to put down a written question to ask the Government when they intend to start the consultation. We have other levers, such as we can hold debates, including an adjournment debate – it’s like a ballot in which you put your name in, say what the title of what you wanted to talk about is – and this could be labelling guidance for low & no alcohol alternatives in the United Kingdom and then that attracts other MPs to contribute and to discuss.”
She also suggested running your own campaign and do so via change.org “then you’ve got the data of people who want to see something change. It can be led by somebody in the sector – any one of you”.
She added it could be done as both individual businesses and as a collective and “leave no stone unturned”.
Boase said: “In the summer, the Government released a white paper on their 10-year health agenda and we all got very excited when we saw the Government will look to support the sector to grow.
Turn into action
“There are so many reasons why there should be Government support for the category because it does such good things for the health of the nation. The bit we haven’t seen ever from a government is the follow through on it but now your party’s in power, how can we influence the Government to turn this into action?”
Antoniazzi replied: “It’s clear the Government has been encouraging but nothing has happened yet. I could put in some written questions and if you are meeting with your MPs, they can lobby it. There is a lobby where members of the public can come in, and then you have a members’ lobby where we kind of hang out and you can grab people to have a conversation with others and I could say to someone ‘where’s this consultation on labelling, etc?’
“[The low & no movement] is something I see increasingly happening with young people. My son is zebra striping and it’s positive. I’m seeing people my age doing it. This isn’t a plug for rugby (Antoniazzi sits on the APPG for Rugby too) but I’m on the board of the Scarlets, which is a Welsh rugby region, and I am in the company of people that are not drinking. They’re driving back to London or they’re maybe not driving but it is an exciting future that you are all part of.”
On apathy of recognition of the low & no sector, Antoniazzi said first it was Brexit then it was Covid then it was an election and things tend to get kicked down on the priority list.
“It’s all about pressure conversations,” she said. “If you can change the descriptors, it’s going to unleash potential for you guys. It’s going to support people who choose to be moderate in their drinking and it’s going to be a win win situation. What does this Government want? It wants a healthier population. It wants the NHS to be eased. I just think this is something they’ve just not got round to and they need a bit of a prod in the right direction.”
