Humza Yousaf is meeting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, today for the first time since becoming Scotland’s first minister.

Yousaf is in London for the meeting and will bring up the issue of tax on Scotch Whisky and energy support for the industry.

In the last UK budget, whisky was hit with a 10.1% tax increase, angering the industry.

Distillers are also excluded from the energy bill relief scheme leading to the Scotch Whisky Association reporting two-thirds of distillers stated their costs will go up, leading to less investment.

Ahead of the meeting, Yousaf said: “Whisky has to pay its fair share of tax. Everyone, including distillers, agrees on that.

“The decision, however, to increase tax by more than 10%, at the same time as refusing to provide the energy-bill support the rest of the drinks industry receives, puts the industry – and Scotland – at a competitive disadvantage.

“That means less investment and puts jobs at risk here in Scotland. That is simply unacceptable.”

He said a crucial industry to the Scottish economy is being denied the support it needs and goes against a Conservative manifesto pledge to review duty to support the Scotch Whisky industry, which he said is “blatantly unfair”.

The First Minister added: “It’s time for the Prime Minister to bring fairness back to the way whisky is treated and I will make that crystal clear when we meet today.”