Call to end 24 hours licensing

It is clearly time to return to the traditional closing times of 11pm for pubs and 2-3am for clubs

The 24 hour drinking culture experiment has failed in this country and should be scrapped, said UKIP deputy leader Paul Nuttall.

“It was heralded as the way forward to bring us in line with the continent but we have a very different drinking culture in this country and that tradition served us well. This Labour-inspired experiment has been very painful and costly for this country in terms of alcohol-related incidents.

“A survey by the Institute of Alcohol Studies has now shown there is a culture of fear among emergency service workers about being attacked when dealing with such incidents and many police officers are rightly calling for an end to 24 hour licensing.

“These are the people in the front line and their views should be listened to and acted upon as a matter of urgency. Even Andy Burnham, who was in charge of the policy has since admitted it was ‘a mistake’,” said Mr Nuttall, North West MEP.

Pubs, clubs and supermarkets in England and Wales were allowed to apply for longer opening licences after the introduction of 24 hour drinking in 2005, following legislation passed two years earlier.

The IAS study surveyed nearly 5,000 police officers, ambulance staff, NHS medics and firefighters and three-quarters of police officers and 50% of ambulance staff reported they had been injured while handling drink-related violence.

“It is clearly time to return to the traditional closing times of 11pm for pubs and 2-3am for clubs. This will not only make it far easier for the police to cope but will reduce the amount of violence saving innocent people from injury and the huge cost to the NHS.

“At the same time the government should introduce a level playing field for pubs and supermarkets so that instead of people getting tanked up on cheap supermarket booze before they go out they will be more inclined to go to the pub.

“These are still closing at the rate of 29 a week, largely because they cannot compete with the supermarket prices and the impact of the smoking ban, and this flood of closures needs to be halted,” said Mr Nuttall.