John Whittingdale attended the 11th Maldon Beer Festival in the Town Hall, Maldon. John Whittingdale joined with members of the Maldon and Dengie Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale to celebrate the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Budget of a 1p cut in Beer Duty and the end of the Beer Duty escalator. Since the policy of raising Beer Duty by 2% above inflation was introduced by the Labour Government over 5,800 pubs have closed and the number of pub-goers has fallen by 3 million. John previously met CAMRAS members at Westminster who were lobbying for an end to the escalator and signed the Early Day Motion calling for it to be reviewed.
John is pictured enjoying a half of Red Herring from Green Jack in Lowestoft with Chris Harvey, CAMRA Pub Liaison Officer, and Jim Morton of the Queens Head, Burnham.
