Minimum alcohol pricing ‘likely to be deemed illegal’ under EU law

CONTROVERSIAL plans to impose minimum pricing for alcohol are “very likely to be deemed illegal” under European competition law, a UK business minister has warned.

The stark warning from David Willetts about a “significant degree of legal risk” over court challenges has led to fresh doubts about the SNP’s flagship policy of introducing a minimum price per alcohol unit.

Scottish Labour public health spokesman Dr Richard Simpson, a former GP, seized on the UK minister’s comments to claim that the SNP’s failure to set a minimum price made a legal challenge to the policy “more likely” with a “significant cost to the taxpayer”.

The latest was sparked by a letter from Mr Willetts to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in which the Tory minister suggests that the UK Government’s own plans to introduce a minimum price “will not deliver” a reduction in harmful drinking.

Mr Willetts, who copied Prime Minister David Cameron in on the letter, went on to talk about the danger of “complex and costly” legal challenges to minimum pricing.

However, a spokeswoman for the British Medical Association (Scotland) claimed that the “public health benefit” of minimum pricing would mean that the policy stood up to any legal challenge.