Publican Protest: British PM Heckled Over Alcohol Tax at Beer Festival
17:07 GMT 01.08.2023 (Updated: 17:09 GMT 01.08.2023)
© AP Photo / Daniel Leal / Prime Minister Rishi Sunak serves a pint of Black Dub stout as he visits the Great British Beer Festival in west London
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Britain's pubs have been dealt a series of financial blows in recent years from the COVID-19 lockdowns, soaring energy bills and rising grain prices caused by sanctions on Russia driving up the price of beer and whiskey.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been heckled while pulling pints at a beer festival in London.
Sunak was helping out behind the bar at the annual Great British Beer Festival, organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), at the Olympia exhibition centre in West London on Tuesday.
Sunak was serving Black Dub stout from the Wensleydale Brewery in his parliamentary seat of Richmond in northwest Yorkshire when a man shouted: "Prime Minister, oh the irony that you're raising alcohol duty on the day that you're pulling a pint."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was heckled at a beer festival while pulling a pint after making alcohol tax changes.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 1, 2023
See more here 👉 https://t.co/aeO0mGxaNU pic.twitter.com/8Em6HXDW9x
Tuesday was also the day a shake-up of alcohol duty by Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt came into force, which will see tipples taxed based on their individual strength rather than in broad classes of beer, wines and spirits as before.
That will see the supermarket price of a bottle of wine rise by 53 pence once VAT is factored in, while putting more than £1 on a bottle of sherry, £1.50 on port and 90 pence on a bottle of spirits such as gin or vodka.
The alcohol duty change also includes an 11p per pint cut in duty on draught beer as a boost to struggling pubs and bars. CAMRA champions traditional draught ales and campaigns to save pubs from closure.
The heckler later identified himself as Rudi Keyser, the landlord of a pub in Wimbledon, in a radio interview from the festival.
"I just shouted out the irony that he's at this fantastic beer festival today talking about beer relief when alcohol duty goes up today."
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) August 1, 2023
Publican Rudi Keyser, who heckled Rishi Sunak at a beer festival today, explains his anger over alcohol duty reforms. @MattChorley pic.twitter.com/Pu25jqUe2V
"He should've stayed away," Keyser said of Sunak. "All they politicians should've stayed away, and they should actually go back to their constituencies and do a day's work, rather being on this PR train."
He said he wanted to point out to the PM "the irony that he's at this fantastic beer festival today talking about beer relief when alcohol duty goes up today."
Keyser told reporters that the tax re-jig was "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
"Across the board, it's all going up," the landlord said. "I can tell you from my side now in the trade, the consumer is going to see an increase."
