Distillers make fresh case for tax reduction

SCOTT WRIGHT

deal” as part of the government’s proposed industrial strategy.

Karen Betts, chief executive of the SWA, said: “Scotch whisky is an industry of huge importance to the UK, which supports over 40,000 jobs and exports more than £4 billion worth of whisky to 182 markets overseas every year.

“However, our success is not a given. So we are urging politicians at Westminster and Holyrood to work with us to deliver a Brexit that supports our future export growth and creates a more competitive domestic environment.

“As part of this, we want to see a cut to the near-80 per cent ‘Scotch Supertax’. Scotch has been a highly successful great British export for many years but its treatment in its home market is damaging its ability to grow at home and to sell overseas.” FOOD has been taken for granted for far too long, and UK farming is facing a crisis which could result in the country no longer having the ability to feed itself.

According to NFU Scotland vice-president Martin Kennedy, the politicians facing questions over future levels of farm support and food pricing, arising out of the wider issue of Brexit, must now listen to the industry, or risk many farmers quitting production, leaving the UK at the mercy of substandard products flooding its markets from overseas.

Mr Kennedy said: “Farmers and crofters will lose the will to do the job they are good at because of such little return, severely endangering food security and our precious environment. We still get questioned on a regular basis about the need for support in what we do. There is now a greater need for support than