Meeting of the Parliament 15 January 2026
Jamie Hepburn makes a good point—the whisky sector is not just about distillers but about the wider supply chain, which benefits constituencies such as Jamie Hepburn’s.
On the tariffs issue, the First Minister was highly praised by the sector in Scotland, including in Speyside, in my constituency, as he picked up the cudgels on behalf of the sector and took its case directly to the White House.
I raised the issues with my UK counterpart, Chris Bryant, at our meeting earlier this month. We are still waiting for the UK Government to deliver on what we all expect—to give Scotch whisky the priority that it deserves in those negotiations and to secure tariff exemptions from the US.
We are also disappointed that our calls to address the disparity in alcohol duty in the latest UK budget went unheard. Instead, the spirits sector faces a further increase in duty rates, which will rise by 18 per cent in three years. That takes the tax burden on a bottle of Scotch to an eye-watering 72 per cent.
I agree with Jamie Hepburn’s comments, and we will continue to pursue the case.