A SOUTHAMPTON pub landlord has banned the Chancellor from drinking in his Shirley boozer in protest at tax hikes on alcohol.

The Park Hotel is the first pub in the city to ban Alistair Darling as part of a rapidly spreading national campaign.

Landlord Matthew Dean who also owns pubs in Woolston and Eastleigh branded Mr Darling's duty rises in his March budget as an attack on the licensed trade.

Mr Darling slapped 4p a pint of beer and 14p on a bottle of wine.

Duty on spirits- including Mr Darling's favourite tipple whisky - went up by 55p a bottle and cider duty by 3p a litre.

Mr Dean said: "Darling's savage attacks on the licensed trade should not go un-noted. Many community pubs in Southampton do a huge amount for charity, are places where community groups and sports teams meet and are local employers who raise huge amounts of tax, duty and business rates for the exchequer.

"Yet Mr Darling chose to stick another nail in the coffin of the local with huge increases in taxes at a time when nationally an average of 27 pubs are closing a week due to the smoking ban and rising industry costs."

He added: "Mr Darling is not welcome here".

The protest campaign started in Mr Darling's Scottish constituency where landlord James Hughes put up a poster in his window banning Mr Darling, the MP for Edinburgh South, from The Utopia bar in Edinburgh. It has since gathered pace across the Internet and networking websites.

It comes as a British Beer and Pub Association poll found 27 pubs are closing a week.