Tories face fire over alcohol units plan

London: The Tories were accused of hampering the fight against binge drinking on Wednesday night after announcing they would scrap alcohol units and replace them with centilitres.

Health spokesman Andrew Lansley said units should be replaced with the metric measurement — a hundredth of a litre — because he claimed too few Britons knew what a unit was.

The plan drew protests from alcohol experts on Wednesday night, who pointed out that using "centilitres of pure alcohol" would confuse most drinkers.

The row eclipsed the unveiling of the party's public health strategy, which was pitched as a war on binge Britain.

Taxes

Lansley confirmed plans to increase taxes on super-strength drinks and said he would if necessary introduce legislation to ban cut-price supermarket deals on alcohol.

He pledged to toughen up the licensing regime to make it easier to close down noisy or irresponsible bars and clubs.

But he rejected calls from the chief medical officer and the Commons health select committee to set a minimum price on all alcohol — claiming it would penalise moderate drinkers.

Lansley's public health strategy also contained plans to tackle obesity by working with fast-food restaurants and bars to publicise calorie contents of their meals, and to reduce the sizes of portions.