What’s sup? Bake off star in beer tax demo

FORMER Bake Off winner Candice Brown trapped herself in a giant pint glass outside Parliament yesterday, to protest against Britain’s crippling beer duty.

Pub owner Candice, 35, warned Chancellor Rishi Sunak the tax would hit businesses and communities.

Protesters were marking the day UK drinkers will have stumped up the same amount of duty as Germans pay in a year, even though they down nearly double our amount.

A 250,000-name petition has called on Mr Sunak to cut the tax in next month’s Budget.

Candice, who owns The Green Man in Eversholt, Bedfordshire, said: “Pubs are the beating heart of cities, towns and villages.

“They not only provide jobs but a place where everyone and anyone can meet and socialise. If the Chancellor does not act now, he is set to damage not only businesses but communities as well.”

A poll for the Long Live the Local group, which was behind yesterday’s protest, said three in four thought the current beer tax was unfair.

Nearly half told the pollsters the Government should do more to support pubs.

Beer tax brings the Treasury £3.4billion a year, four times more than in other European countries.

In the UK, there is a 54p levy on every pint of five per cent ABV [alcohol by volume] beer.

But in Spain, you would be charged only 5p tax on the same pint.

In 2018, then chancellor Philip Hammond froze beer duty after nearly 120,000 people put their names to another petition.

Champ...with Bake Off judge Mary Berry