Scots will have to pay £6 for cheapest bottle of wine

THE cost of the cheapest bottle of wine is to increase to more than £6 in Scotland after the SNP increased its minimum alcohol price by 30 per cent.

The Scottish Government said it would increase the minimum price per unit of alcohol from 50p to 65p from September, a move that will also see the cost of a bottle of whisky rise to at least £18.20.

Shona Robison, the deputy First Minister, claimed the measure would help tackle Scots’ problematic relationship with alcohol and said the existing policy had “saved hundreds of lives”.

The Scottish Tories said the move “simply punishes responsible drinkers” during a cost of living crisis and that the evidence did not support SNP claims about the public health benefits.

“It is clear that minimum pricing is not the miracle cure that the SNP government portray it as,” Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for the Scottish Tories and a GP, said.

“Rather than tackling the epidemic of alcoholism, it simply punishes responsible drinkers.

“As a practising GP, I am well aware of the plight of alcoholism in Scotland. However, it is clear that MUP is not reducing alcohol related deaths as the

SNP are claiming. What is perhaps most concerning is the report from Public Health Scotland that highlighted that problem drinkers are choosing to skip meals in order to buy alcohol.”

The evidence base for the policy, introduced in 2018 following a long court battle, has been controversial.

Last year, the UK’S statistics watchdog rebuked the Scottish Government for claiming studies had conclusively backed its claims that the policy had saved hundreds of lives.

In fact, only one out of 40 studies backed the claim, using a theoretical comparison with England, while others included findings that warned problem drinkers were going without food to sustain their habit.

Alcohol related deaths are at a 14-year high in Scotland, though supporters of the policy say the total would have been even higher were it not for the minimum unit pricing scheme.

The increase, which will be approved by Holyrood, raises the cost of a fourpack of premium beer to at least £5.72. A bottle of wine of 13 per cent alcohol content would be at least £6.34.

A sunset clause in the legislation had meant the regulations, which were due to be ditched in April, will be extended. Scotland was the first country to introduce MUP and Ms Robison said other countries had now followed its lead.