Chancellor John Healey downs pint after delivering first Budget

After delivering his maiden Budget, Chancellor John Healey headed to the pub, where he was filmed downing a pint behind the bar. Mr Healey poured the celebratory pint himself, then drank it in one go as Treasury civil servants packing out the pub chanted in support. It is tradition for the Chancellor to join his Treasury civil servants at the Two Chairmen pub in Westminster on the night of the Budget . Healey appeared in good spirits as he was filmed downing the pint, flicking his tie over his shoulder and holding the empty pint glass upside down above his head in celebration.

On Wednesday Healey delivered Labour’s third Budget since entering Government – his first as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the first since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister. Read more: Burnham rules out early general election after Chancellor launched tax raid on banks and savers to fund energy bill help Read more: Chancellor vows to bring down benefits bill after refusing to make 'crude cuts' in Budget Alcohol duty is to rise by 3.9%, pushing the price of a pint up by 2p.

The increase is expected to add between 10p and 12p to the price of a bottle of wine, depending on its strength, while a bottle of 37.5% gin will rise by 35p. Gambling firms will see duty on machine games with stakes over £1 rise from 20% to 25% from April next year to help pay for an extension of business rates support for a raft of high street businesses. But the duty hike is far less than first feared, sparking investor relief across the sector after initial expectations that the tax would be doubled.

Vape shops will be excluded from business rates relief starting from April 2027. As of this month, all vaping products are now subject to a new vaping products duty. This change saw a flat rate tax of 22p per millilitre added on to vaping liquid, costing someone who buys a 10ml bottle of e-liquid an extra £2.20 in duty. Cigarettes also went up this month, in line with RPI inflation plus an additional two percentage points. Tobacco duty is normally increased at the Budget, but it was moved forward in line with the vape tax.

The Chancellor said the UK was being battered by a global economic storm, with the Budget watchdog slashing its forecast for gross domestic product growth next year. The public finances have also taken a battering, with the cost of borrowing soaring and the UK spending £14 billion more on debt interest this year, Mr Healey said. The Chancellor told MPs: “Those are the storms we face. We can’t wish them away. We must choose the course we steer through them.”

Mr Healey hiked taxes on banks and gambling firms to provide the “breathing space” he promised for households and high street businesses. A new £100 payment has been announced for 20 million households living in council tax band A to D properties, to help with rising energy bills. This money will be paid into people’s bank accounts from January. The Government has also announced that standing charges on gas bills are to be shifted to the unit rate in a move that is expected to save 60% of households an average of £45 off their annual bill.

However, high-usage households could end up paying more. The removal of VAT from electricity bills this month is to be extended until July 2031. Also, the threshold for small business rate relief for retail hospitality and leisure businesses will be increased from £12,000 ⁠to £18,000. The shift takes an estimated 70,000 additional businesses completely out of paying business rates.