The prime minister has been questioned in the Commons on why it is being proposed that alcoholic take-aways can’t be sold during lockdown.
A take-away growler being filled at Stewart Brewing
During a debate on Boris Johnson’s statement to the house on the justiciation for the lockdown, Mark Pawsey, Conservative MP for Rugby, raised the question of hospitality’s dashed hopes on this matter.
He asked: “Is the prime minister confident that the cost of this, in terms of losses of turnover and jobs, is a price worth paying? And can he reasure them that after this short-tem pain it will be back to business on 2nd December? And, may I just ask him, why can’t pubs sell-take-away beer to go with their take-away food?”
In a sometimes rambling response, as were others during the debate, Boris Johnson replied: “There’s a budget of measures that we need to bring together to get the R down and, alas, when you start unpicking one but, logically, a lot of the rest of it comes out.
“His fundamental question is the right one. I think the people of this country want to put human life first. I think they want to save as many lives as possible. That must be our over-riding aim. But we think that if we enforce these measures properly andif people self-isolate, and if they’re contacted in the way that they should, then we can get the R down below one in the way that I have descrived, and he can have businesses able to open up again and do Christmas business in so far as they possibly can.”
Pauline Latham, Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire, asked specific questions about golf, first, then brewers: “Supermarkets can sell alcohol, but pubs cannot sell it at all if they’re doing a take-away service and small breweries are really going to suffer for this because they’ve got beer intheir tanks ready to go. And they will have to pour it down the drain — again. Could we not look at there being a level playing field for selling alcohol on a take-away only basis?”
‘Take-away beer was, and is, a vital cashflow lifeline for brewers and publicans’
The prime minister thanked Mrs Latham for her ideas. “We will take them away, we will study them all carefully — both points are valid. But, I must repeat to her, regretfully, the point I’ve made many times this afternoon that in the overall budget of risk we carry we need to get the R down, we need to stop the spread of the disease which is now paramount.”
Society of Independent Brewer (SIBA) chief executive, James Calder, said : “It was encouraging to see the PM commit to look again at this issue around the unfairness of allowing supermarkets to sell beer, but not pubs during the second lockdown.
“England’s pubs and independent brewers need to see the final and full guidance as soon as possible so they can prepare their businesses for the changes which come into effect from Thursday. Take-away beer was, and is, a vital cashflow lifeline for brewers and publicans.
“We need to see a return to the regulations which were in place during the first lockdown, whereby pubs could sell take-away beer to consumers, independent bottle shops and brewery shops are classed as essential retail, and that independent breweries can continue to offer delivery and click and collect from the brewery gate throughout November.”
