Hal Wilson of Cambridge Wine Merchants calls on every independent to put pressure on their election candidates to avoid a policy that will damage us all
We need to unite to force a change in government policy.
Rishi Sunak is getting a reputation for being really inept at politics and his announcement of a general election in the pouring rain is just one image that demonstrates it.
He’s none too popular with his own backbenchers as a result, many of whom will be out of a job on July 5. I understand that 60 Conservative backbench MPs have written to the Treasury asking Jeremy Hunt to make the duty easement permanent, 10 more than would be needed to force a leadership election. They have been told to stop bothering them as there is no way the policy will change.
The WSTA has also come in for criticism from Treasury officials, who will no longer agree to meetings and even accuse chief executive Miles Beale of lying to MPs (he hasn’t!).
All of this proves that we are getting under the skin of this government, who are finding it more difficult to justify carrying out Sunak’s anti-business, prohibitionist and frankly un-Conservative policies.
We need to keep going and more than likely will need to persuade an incoming Labour government to do the right thing. The general election campaign provides us with new opportunities to meet with and persuade MPs and prospective candidates to change the policy.
For context, I and other indies were involved in a panel discussion at the London Wine Fair of what was keeping us awake at night. While new labelling requirements and ever more costly environmental responsibility featured strongly, it was the refusal of the government to entertain making the duty easement on wines between 11.5% and 14.5% permanent that really gave us the night sweats.
Whoever imports the wines we sell, it will become massively more complex and costly to calculate duty, and therefore arrive at a true cost, if the easement comes to an end on February 1, 2025.
The decision to go ahead with a tax system for wine that will mean a different calculation of duty for each of the 136 possible abvs between 8.5% and 22% (wines can be labelled to 0.1% abv now, another Brexit freedom) doesn’t bear much scrutiny under the lens of reality. Sadly it is Sunak’s policy and not up for scrutiny.
Perhaps he really believes that alcohol duty reform is part of his legacy to the nation. By linking duty to public health, raising wine duty massively and making it ever harder to administer, he may well have convinced himself that the electorate will just give up drinking wine and enjoy healthier lives as a result. That is definitely a minority view among MPs, though, and is obviously one that will force most of us out of business if we can’t change it.
During an election campaign your MP will be spending more time in their constituency and looking for ways to engage with the electorate. What better way than visiting local businesses? Whoever your MP is, and your colleagues’ MPs are, please write to them as soon as you finish reading this call to arms.
Find out who the prospective candidates are from other parties and write to them too. Even if you have spoken to or met them already, please do it again. Invite them to visit your business to discuss how they can help SMEs grow the economy. For readers in England, perhaps English Wine Week (June 15-23) presents an opportunity for a meeting and photo opportunity.
If you do meet, remind them that the government is refusing to even consider the simplest of amendments to its policy, the only one demanded by the entire trade, and one that doesn’t affect the intentions of the policy but rather makes it possible to manage.
The current legislation already includes the solution of the easement but it has a sunset clause. The government knew there was a problem with the policy, adopted a workable solution, then wrote into the law that the solution will come to an end on February 1, 2025.
We need that sunset clause to be removed and the solution allowed to carry on indefinitely. Nothing difficult to achieve, no drama: just remove a sentence and move on. Whatever party they stand for, your MP works for you, and must realise both the common sense of our demand and the dire consequences for your business if it is ignored. If we all do this, we will not be ignored, and the new government will be forced to consider its position.
Trying to get the Labour leadership to commit to anything at this stage is incredibly difficult but it is crucial that all Labour MPs, and even prospective candidates, know that the easement must be made permanent, that it is incredibly easy to achieve politically, and it needs to happen within the first few months of the new government taking office. At least there will be time to keep campaigning after July 4, with seven months before the sunset clause takes effect.
Please go to members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP; for prospective candidates try whocanivotefor.co.uk/ppcs, or dig out your last email, to make another demand for the change we really must bring about if our beloved independent wine trade is to survive. Thank you.
