Celebrating A CAMRA Campaign Success

Thanks to the CAMRA website for this story that has an impact on all pubs -

CAMRA officially launched new celebration material at a popular parliamentary pub event last week that thanked MPs and Ministers who made a difference by the scrapping of the beer duty escalator. 

The celebration, which took place in the Red Lion pub, attracted over 40 people including Ministers Sajid Javid, Brandon Lewis, Eric Pickles, and CAMRA directors who fought against what MP Andrew Griffiths claims was “the hated beer duty escalator”.

The beer tax campaign headed by CAMRA aimed to abolish the beer duty escalator which would push tax up by 2 percent.

At this year’s budget, the Chancellor axed the plans and announced a 1p cut in beer duty, the first time beer duty has been cut since 1959.

Jackie Parker, a CAMRA Director, described the campaign as “a fight to save our great British pint”.

Campaigning included gaining 109,100 signatures to reach the necessary figure for a Parliamentary debate, and volunteers who joined at CAMRA’s first mass lobby condemning the beer duty escalator.

Jackie took the opportunity to thank the MPs “for the very positive way in which they engaged with and supported the campaign.

“We should all be very proud of our collective achievement”, she added. The efforts of those involved were also echoed by Chief Executive Mike Benner and MP Andrew Griffiths who stated that: “We should not underestimate what we achieved in scrapping that beer duty escalator. We should pay thanks to organisations such as SIBA and the British Beer and Pub Association that worked so hard in delivering this.

"We should thank all Members of Parliament across all sides of the house who worked together unified because they recognised the damage the beer duty escalator was having on pubs and brewers in their constituencies." 

Mike concluded that: “This is a win-win situation for everyone.

"We did it and we made a difference". 

The celebratory event which allowed MPs, Ministers, and members of CAMRA to enjoy their efforts to scrap the beer duty escalator also kick-started further plans ahead of next year’s budget to ensure the government continue to support local pubs through freezing beer duty.