GORDON Brown's decision to put a penny on a pint of beer had 300-year-old brewer Shepherd Neame frothing with anger as it warned of pub closures and increased smuggling.

Managing director Jonathan Neame warned that the "tragic" decision would force more pubs to lay off staff or close altogether.

"This is a tragedy," he said. "It will make little if any difference to duty revenues, which have risen just as fast in the recent duty freeze as they

did when duty rates were increased.

"It will reduce the Chancellor's other revenues like employment taxes, which will fall as more pubs lay off staff or close. In short, this unwarranted increase will leave less money for schools and hospitals, not more.

"Higher duty hits taxpayers, pubs, pub customers and staff, and the local communities pubs serve."

Mr Neame said that the only winners would be booze smugglers and the French government which stood to make an even bigger fortune from British people who brought in more than a million pints of beer from Calais every day.

"It is a cynical move by a cynical Chancellor who chose to bury the bad news of his economic mismanagement by postponing his Budget. It is a duty hike

too far, a duty hike which makes no economic sense."