A Facebook campaign has been launched to have Chancellor Alistair Darling barred from every pub in Britain.

The organisers were angered by the Edinburgh MP's Budget, in which the duty on alcohol was increased.

They have launched a Facebook group urging people to put up posters in their local pub banning the Chancellor from entering, and are also spreading the message via blogs.

The campaign was inspired by the Utopia pub in Easter Road, Edinburgh, which put up a poster saying that Mr Darling was not welcome once the Budget had been announced.

It has now found support around the country, with pubs from North Devon and Lincoln to Lewes in Sussex displaying the signs.

Taxes on alcohol increased by 6% above inflation and will go up by 2% for the next four years.

This means 4p on a pint of beer, 3p on a litre of cider, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on a bottle of spirits.

The Facebook campaign, called "Alistair Darling you're barred", now has 448 members.

The group claim the Budget will hit the licensed trade hard at a time when 27 pubs a week are closing due to the smoking ban and rising industry costs.

Gareth Young, one of the campaign organisers, said: "For a Government that is fixated with Britishness, it's a peculiar way to treat a great British institution like the pub.

"It's the small traditional brewers and the independent pubs - already suffering the effects of the smoking ban - that will be hit hardest.

"Put simply: across the board alcohol duty is too broad a broom to tackle the problem of binge-drinking, and it will punish drinkers that drink responsibly in traditional community pubs."

Staff at Utopia, on the city's Easter Road, said they were surprised their poster banning the Edinburgh South West MP had inspired a nationwide campaign.

Manager Andrew Little, 27, said: "We just intended the poster to be a bit of fun just to explain to the customers about the price rises and to say it's to do with the Budget.

"It's not a personal attack on Alistair Darling, he should be able to enjoy a drink himself, it's just a bit of fun that's probably got a bit out of hand.

"The Facebook thing is nothing to do with us. We were not planning on taking it that far. I think it's quite amazing."

Several pubs around the UK have designed their own posters.

One picture shows him as a Simpsons character in Moe's Tavern, with the text stating "finally Alistair Darling finds a pub that he's not barred from!".

A Treasury spokeswoman said: "The Chancellor made clear at the time of the Budget that his priorities were him alleviating child poverty, helping pensioners and families, and these remain his objectives.

"It is a cheap price to pay for trying to meet these goals."

The UK Independence Party said its leader Nigel Farage has taken up the campaign to bar Mr Darling from all the pubs across the water.

The MEP has had the Chancellor barred from O'Farrells pub in Brussels, a favourite haunt of MEPs.

Mr Farage said: "Every politician who voted for the smoking ban and an increase in alcohol taxes at this difficult time for our pubs should be banned.

"However, most of our politicians are so detached from reality that they probably don't visit pubs."