Our teetotal PM has a drink problem, as tax-addled whisky fans are finding out

Teetotal prime ministers and chancellors of the exchequer make uncomfortable bedfellows with the drinks business, writes whisky expert Nick Morgan

Many pubs are hanging on the edge of insolvency. Breweries are closing their doors too (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

You don’t have to look too hard to find a closed pub. Streets that before the pandemic were littered with last night’s takeaways are now lined with boarded-up boozers.

Browse through the pages of the publican’s paper, The Morning Advertiser, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was edited by Dad’s Army’s Private Frazer, so loudly does “We’re doomed” shout from every page. Changing drinking habits, staff shortages, increased energy costs and increased everything else costs have all conspired to leave many pubs hanging on the edge of insolvency. Breweries are closing their doors too.

It’s not a surprise that on the day when alcohol duties rose by around 10 per cent an enraged brewer-turned-publican, Rudi Keyser, heckled Rishi Sunak as he was photographed pulling a pint at the opening of the Great British Beer Festival. The prime minister, who is happy to serve champagne to his guests, is an avowed teetotaller with a passion for Coca-Cola, so it’s unlikely that the new duties will make much of an impact on his very deep pockets. But they will hit the average drinker hard – particularly if a “hauf an a hauf” (a half of beer and a whisky) is the beverage of their choice. While the cost of their beer chaser will (in theory) remain the same, the cost of their “wee hauf” will rocket.