Rishi Sunak is being urged to abandon his plan to hike beer duty in next week's Budget, with a number of North East MPs warning it could damage the pub industry.
The Chancellor has also been asked to consider a cut in duty on draught beer to target support at under pressure pubs and clubs.
The plea comes after new research revealed up to 20,000 pubs across the country are at risk of going out of business, putting 200,000 jobs at risk.
Although pubs fully reopened in July many are still operating at less than 90% of their 2019 trading levels and have large debts to pay and increasing costs.
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More than 100 MPs, including five from the North East, have now written to Mr Sunak urging a rethink on duty.
In their letter, seen by ChronicleLive, they said: "Given the important social as well as economic contribution pubs make to the communities we represent, we think it is vital we do more to help them not just survive but thrive.
"Pubs employ a higher rate of staff than supermarkets, are best placed to provide supervised and safe drinking and through things like sports teams and community activities make a massive difference. In short, if we didn't have the pub, we would want to invent it.
"We acknowledge that a freeze would remove over £300million from projected tax receipts in every years of the forecast, thus necessitating higher taxes or lower spending elsewhere or more borrowing. This would, in our judgement, be a worthwhile trade-off."
North West Durham MP Richard Holden, who penned the letter, said: "Our pubs are the heart and soul of our communities. The support given to pubs through furlough and grants throughout the global pandemic has been great but there is no denying that the hospitality sector has been hit harder than any other by the pandemic.
“That is why I am leading the call from over 100 colleagues on the Chancellor to cut draught beer duty.
"A cut will not only significantly bolster our much loved pubs across our towns and villages, but also have great knock on effects for British agriculture and employment, especially for young people in our hospitality sector.
“Over 100 fellow Conservative MPs and I hope that after a tough period, the Chancellor will give our pubs and clubs something to raise a drink to this budget.”
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