The Campaign for Pubs has written to the head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, angry that Treasury civil servants put up a false social media post after Wednesday’s Budget statement.
On X (formerly Twitter), @hmtreasury posted that a freeze in alcohol duty was “cutting costs for breweries, distilleries, restaurants, nightclubs, pubs, and bars”.
A freeze of beer duty (which is a producer tax, levied on breweries) holds the current tax, on beer, at the same level, the campaign points out. “It is, therefore, impossible that this has ‘cut costs’ for anyone, least of all pubs!”
The Civil Service Code says civil servants “must set out the facts and relevant issues truthfully, and correct any errors as soon as possible”. The Tweet on Wednesday was untruthful, says the campaign, and a clear breach of the code. As a result, the campaign has made a formal complaint demanding a retraction and an apology.
“Publicans were disgusted, if not surprised, at the way Jeremy Hunt claimed to be ‘supporting 38,000 pubs’ with his pathetic duty freeze, which is complete nonsense,” said Dawn Hopkins, Norwich publican and vice-chair of Campaign for Pubs. “However, people were stunned to see a clear lie from the Treasury twitter account.
“The Budget was enough of a slap in the face for pubs and publicans, with no extra support for pubs at all, but for the Treasury then to be telling porkie pies is a disgrace. We hope that the Head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, will demand a retraction and an apology, and ensure such dishonesty from the Treasury does not happen again.”
Paul Crossman, chair of the Campaign and a publican in York, added: “Publicans are furious about the complete failure of the Government to support pubs in the Budget, whilst as usual funnelling taxpayers’ money to the global brewers and offshore pubcos.
“We will not, however, put up with the government lying about who they are helping. The Civil Service Code states that civil servants “must set out the facts and relevant issues truthfully, and correct any errors as soon as possible”. This Treasury tweet was demonstrably untruthful and a clear breach of the Civil Service Code and action must be taken to correct this.”
