Mayor: Price rise on booze won't hit binge drinking

Boris Johnson today hit out at David Cameron’s “regressive” plans to bring in a minimum price of alcohol to tackle the scourge of binge drinking.

The Mayor claimed that the poorest would be hit hardest by proposals to set a “floor price” as high as 50p for a unit of alcohol.

His aides suggested he was unconvinced by recent academic research which claimed a small rise in the price of drinks could cut deaths by a third.

Mr Johnson told the Standard: “I think there are better ways of dealing with this. It’s very regressive. It hits poorest people hardest.” He said alcohol ban zones on some of London’s busiest high streets had worked “very well”.

A Home Office consultation, which also proposed a ban on multi-buy discounting and a change to the licensing regime, ended last week and ministers are considering their response. The Prime Minister, supported by some police forces and health groups, risks a backlash from the drinks industry which raises more than £9 billion a year in annual tax revenues.

City Hall aides said the Mayor would argue against the “mass blunt instrument” of minimum unit pricing, preferring a strategy based on targeted intervention with problem drinkers and premises which flouted the rules.

A ban on the sale of alcohol at less than 40p a unit would increase the price of a £2.99 bottle of red wine containing 9.4 units of alcohol to £3.76, while an 87p can of strong cider would almost double to at least £1.60.

In his 2012 manifesto, Mr Johnson pledged to take a “smarter” approach to alcohol crime by bringing in a US-style compulsory sobriety scheme for drunken offenders. A pilot scheme is expected to be approved by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice shortly.

Miles Beale, of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said: “Pushing up prices to deal with the actions of a reckless minority is unfair. Ordinary people looking for value for money in their weekly shop should not be labelled as binge drinkers.”