Mike Wood

No, we are coming to the end of the debate. Those pubs, bars and restaurants are the No.1 place where young people get their first foot on the jobs ladder. The Chancellor’s announcement on small business relief will clearly be welcomed by those firms that qualify, but the truth is that it will do little to help most hospitality businesses. Fewer than one in 10 restaurants and licensed premises are set to benefit, with the rest continuing to suffer from Labour’s business rates bill hike. The Chancellor had a simple, practical lever right in front of him today—a meaningful increase in the alcohol duty differential for draught beer and cider pulled across the bar in a well-run local pub or restaurant, compared with cheap bottles and cans stacked high in supermarket aisles. It would have helped our British breweries, helped save community pubs and protected hospitality jobs for young people. Again, the Chancellor knows that: in opposition, he called for cuts in beer duty, but in the Treasury he is hiking the main beer duty rate. He ignores the cross-party pleas for big reductions in draught beer duty, and instead hammers publicans and brewers once again, with another hike in the beer duty he used to say should be cut. The Chancellor needed to step up and take the decision needed to help pubs and hospitality. Instead, just like on debt, on welfare and on defence, he ducked it. Our businesses, our young people and our armed forces cannot afford to wait in a holding pattern until this Government discover their courage.