Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to drop the post-Brexit ‘wine tax’, which is being described as a ‘sneaky Sauvignon surcharge’, if he is to be elected as prime minister this week.
The calls come as UK consumers are set to pay a “sauvignon surcharge” from February next year, as part of changes introduced after the UK left the EU, first announced by then chancellor Rishi Sunak in the government’s 2021 spending review.
Industry experts have now come together to write a letter criticising Sunak and arguing that the booze tax will lead to the increase of some red wines by more than 40p per bottle, and raise the number of tax bands for wine from one to 30, reported the Independent.
Signatories include the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, Laurent-Perrier (UK) Limited, and Davy’s Wine Merchants.
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Majestic Wine CEO John Colley also told the publication that the changes “do not make sense” and are due to “increase prices and threaten the quality and choice of wines that UK consumers are currently able to enjoy”.
He added: “Everyone is a loser here – small business, consumers and the Treasury – and the policy needs to be stopped before it is too late.”
The latest news follows changes brought in August last year, that saw the implementation of a temporary flat tax for all wines between 11.5% and 14.5% alcohol by volume, in response to concerns from industry leaders. However it is understood this temporary measure it due to end at the beginning of February 2025.
Elsewhere, this year’s spring budget saw current chancellor Jeremy Hunt extend the freeze on alcohol duty until February 2025, yet the Scotch Whisky Association insisted there are still “great inequities” to be addressed.
