Chris Grayling faced a new revolt today when up to 20 Tory MPs were said to be ready to vote for a cut in the drink drive limit.
They criticised the Transport Secretary for comments in an Evening Standard interview this week that said the police should focus on drink drivers who exceed the current limit rather than criminalise people who have had “a glass of wine at the pub”.
Tory MP David Burrowes said MPs who backed a cut in the limit would aim to force a vote on current legislation or when parliament debates a consultation on drink driving.
He told the Standard: “The latest report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Harm about the impact on the emergency services of excessive alcohol drinking shows that our laws are out of synch with pretty much every country in the world apart from Malta.
“It is a shame that the Transport Secretary nailed his colours to the mast when it comes to drink driving when the evidence from pretty much every other country as well those who see the impact of alcohol - the police, paramedics and other emergency services - are calling for change.”
The all-party group report two days ago catalogued how police, ambulance and A&E personnel face a risk of violence and verbal abuse as they attend drink-fuelled incidents.
It called for a cut in the legal limit and a minimum unit price for alcohol. Conservative MP Fiona Bruce, chair of the group, said: “Alcohol-fuelled behaviour resulting in criminality, fires or accidents is adding intolerable - yet often unnecessary - pressure on vital resources.”
In his interview earlier this week Mr Grayling was cool towards calls to cut the blood alcohol limit from 80mg per 100ml to 50mg, which would bring England into line with Scotland.
“We have a drink-drive problem but its not people who had a glass of wine at the pub,” said the minister. It’s people who systematically flout the law. We have a fairly thinly stretched police force and we should concentrate on catching the serious offenders.”
