London

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was heckled as he was pouring a pint of beer at a beer festival in London on Tuesday (August 1). Prime Minister Sunak, who is a teetotaler, visited the Great British beer festival in West London. As he was pouring a pint of Black Dub stout, a person shouted: “Prime minister, oh the irony that you’re raising alcohol duty on the day that you’re pulling a pint.”

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Another onlooker shouted at Sunak, who loves Coca-Cola, by saying, "Prime Minister, it's not Coca-Cola."

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Who is the person that heckled Sunak?

The person who heckled the prime minister over raising the alcohol duty was 46-year-old Rudi Keyser, who runs a pub in Wimbledon in south-west London. According to a report by The Guardian, Keyser said he wanted to get across the message while Sunak was promoting a freeze on beer-based duty, this was not the case for some other drinks.

Keyser said that the number of breweries that shut down last year had been phenomenal. “Plus on 1 August – today – they are raising alcohol duty across the board significantly," he added. 

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“I run a pub as part of a big national chain and we’ve been bulk buying in the last two weeks to avoid the alcohol duty increase. And he has the audacity to come and pull a pint for PR,” the 46-year-old added. 

Prime Minister Sunak has been insisting that businesses and consumers would benefit from the post-Brexit alcohol duty changes, despite the fact that charges for some drinks are increasing. 

According to a report by The Telegraph, the system aims to encourage drinkers to cut back by taxing all alcohol based on its strength, rather than the previous categories of wine, beer, spirits, and ciders.

This would mean duty would increase overall. 

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